With No Timetable, The U.S. "Sustains" Iraqi Bombing

You knew this was coming -- Phase two of the refugee assistance for Iraqis after the first U.S. bombing runs now rings with a reverberant war phrase: "sustained military involvement." 

One round of attacks with fighter jet attacks and drones dropping laser-guided bombs is only the beginning. Where does it end? The President has not addressed a commitment to the depth and the duration of the recent U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Here is the latest Fox News report:

"President Obama braced Americans on Saturday for a sustained military involvement in Iraq, saying the United States is prepared to continue with air strikes to protect U.S. diplomats and citizens and others under attack from the ISIS terror group.

"I don't think we’re going to solve this problem in weeks," the president said on the South Lawn of the White House.

"However, Obama, who departed after the speech for a one-week family vacation on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, gave no specific timetable for his plan." 

 ("Obama Says Iraq Situation Will Take More Than 

'Weeks' to Solve." Fox News. August 9, 2014)

Obama says, "Even as we continue to deal with the immediate situation, we seek a broader solution." But his critics like Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, warn a policy of containment won't work and claim his approach is too narrow.

The Islamic militants are "inherently expansionist and must be stopped," the senators said. "The longer we wait to act, the worse this threat will become."

Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby told the American people the following is the extent of the recent military involvement:

 

* Two U.S. F/A 18 fighters first struck an ISIS artillery unit outside of Irbil, dropping two 500-pound laser-guided bombs Friday.

* Later, a drone targeted an ISIS mortar position. When ISIS fighters returned to the site a short time later, the drone struck the target again, he said.

* That was followed a short time later by a second round of airstrikes, carried out by four U.S. fighter jets, which targeted an ISIS convoy of seven vehicles and another mortar position, Kirby said.

  

* The F/A 18s made two passes, dropping a total of eight laser-guided bombs.

* The United States has hundreds of military personnel in Iraq, including advisers sent in recent weeks to coordinate with Iraqi and Kurdish military officials in response to the ISIS rampage. 

 

* The USS George H.W. Bush and other Navy ships also are in the region. 

 

(Jason Hanna and Chelsea J. Carter. "Obama: 'Successful' Airstrikes Against ISIS, 

But Victory Up to Iraqis." CNN. August 9, 2014)

 

 

What Is Going On?

 

Fighter jets, bombing runs, drones, advisers on the ground, warships = another sustained U.S. military conflict.

How else can we Americans judge the implications of what has taken place during the last couple of days? No timetable? How can we trust our politicians and war hawks to find a feasible solution for the problem in Iraq, anyway? The Iraq War has been a regrettable chapter in U.S. history ripe with nonexistent "weapons of mass destruction" and vendettas for the mistakes of a prior administration.

Now, we're going to "solve" what we couldn't "solve" during mass occupation? And, the immediate method of doing so is humanitarian aid and bombs? The obvious political and religious divisions in the country thwart efforts to unify the government and establish a democracy. Iraq is a nation in turmoil. The ISIS terrorists have even wrestled American weapons from Iraqi troops that are evidently inferior and afraid. Whose fight is the recent bloodbath?

 

Sweet Mother of Mercy, what is wrong with our leadership? Of our involvement, they say "we are" but "we aren't" when bulleting the sky and promising happy endings in ISIS body counts. If freedom is the intent of the new Iraqi government (whatever that government is), the drive must push them to overcome ruthless enemies. Don't we understand that whenever U.S. ordnance runs out, the determining fight for control of a country will begin?

I believe we should get Americans the hell out of Iraq now and cease the bombing.