On Fighting ISIS: A Sad Day When I Agree With John Boehner

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I’ve thought from the outset that President Obama was ill advised to telegraph to the enemy that the US, under no circumstances, would send troops to fight ISIS.  He said that, of course, so as to mollify terrified democrats facing a November election.  With his favorable numbers in the tank it doesn’t help his party by issuing unpopular decrees such as sending young Americans once again to the troubled Middle East.  It is not realistic, however, to think that the US can win any war or defeat a highly organized terrorist organization like ISIS without boots on the ground, so, on this day, I find myself agreeing with John Boehner.  That makes me sad.

ISIS

From TheWeek:

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) says the U.S. may ultimately have “no choice” but to put its own troops on the front lines against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

“At some point somebody’s boots have to be on the ground,” Boehner said in an interview with ABC’s This Week. Boehner added that it was preferable for the U.S. to train local forces to wage a ground offensive, but when asked directly if U.S. troops should be used should that plan fail, he indicated he agreed.

“We have no choice,” he said. “These are barbarians. They intend to kill us, and if we don’t destroy them first, we’re going to pay the price.”

An NBC poll out Sunday found that 72 percent of Americans believe U.S. ground troops will wind up fighting against ISIS, despite Obama’s insistence to the contrary. —Jon Terbush

That being said anyone care to wager that after November troops will be sent to Syria and Iraq?

About Post Author

Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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9 years ago

As we watch events unfold, it becomes more and more clear that we can’t back-seat-drive this situation. Evidence is clear that Obama has not been telegraphing his punches. His M.O. has been to use the most “conservative” rhetoric while, in the background, taking aggressive steps to engage ISIS.

All the blather we hear – about how we “should” have armed the resistance in Syria rather than allowing ISIS to fill the vacuum – is just so much nonsense. ISIS was that group of insurgents. We would have been arming ISIS (and other forces…equally unknown).

The fact that the situation in Syria is virtually inscrutable does not make Obama’s response wrong. Bashar al Assad is a criminal of the first order. But the uprising against him is being conducted largely by insurgents who know a good opportunity when they see one.

G.W. Bush…or more precisely Dick Cheney and his minions…made this mess, and the fact that Iraq and Syria are a mess is a remnant of that. We are naive when we forget that insurgent forces didn’t see this coming. We are similarly naive when we omit the evidence of numerous failures in the Arab Spring. WE created immense instability in the region, and NUMEROUS forces seized their opportunities…from social democratizing movements to the forces of Jihad.

We cannot possibly second-guess this situation…because we are facing anarchy on many fronts. We do not know the players, and we don’t control the scorecard.

I for one think waiting for ISIS to really show itself…and expose what it stands for…may be the hard way to go, but until they did, we had NO WAY to really expose and deal with them.

Don’t let the rhetoric of “wannabes” misguide a fair evaluation of facts. It’s all too easy to Monday Morning Quarterback the situation, but NOBODY really had a clue before ISIS emerged…a clue about who are friends might be, that is.

Joe Hagstrom
9 years ago

Unless our Country and the world are willing to go all in and declare all out war, putting
troops on the ground” is a recipe for disaster. Our Nation has not the stomach or will to pay for it and the world doesn’t either. Bomb away but keep our borders safe and make the Middle Easterners rise up themselves.

Joe Hagstrom
Reply to  Professor Mike
9 years ago

Can’t argue with that. Warmongers always get their way. Not saying this is bad all the time. But if war it is then go all in until real victory is achieved. Millions of troops and trillions of dollars. If it isn’t worth the price then don’t go. That’s the decision. Half assed never works. Only makes it worse.

Bill Formby
Reply to  Joe Hagstrom
9 years ago

Joe, I am with you on that. Since ISIS, unlike Al Queda, has actually mark out a specific territory I vote we keep bombing that area until there are nothing but remnants left of them and then let the Iraqis do the clean up work. Hopefully, by then one of the moderate groups we support in Syria will have gotten strong enough with our help to take out Assad. If we and those joining the coalition are smart we will destroy their supply lines, find their funding sources and cut them off, and turn that part of the world into a giant parking lot. With the new administration in Iraq perhaps we can deal with them without boots on the ground.

Bill Formby
9 years ago

Mike, I think that most everyone agrees that making that particular announcement was a bad strategy on Obama’s part. It was pretty much the same as announcing a date certain that we would be pulling out of Afghanistan. However, I think the really sad part is that he felt he had to make such a statement because of the politics in this country at this point in time. He had asked congress to meet and to authorize the air strikes before taking the break they are on right now. Instead of doing that Boehner had the audacity to say that they would leave that for the next congress, i.e., until January. In my mind Boehner gets no credit for anything except for trying to find a way to screw over the POTUS. At one time I thought he had been put in a bad position by the Tea Party in the House but now e has joined them and has gone out of his way to ambush the president and has hurt the American people in the process. The House of Representatives under Boehner has been less productive than any previous house in history.

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