You can\’t say the bombing of ISIS targets has had no success.
It has proven two facts, beyond the shadow of a doubt, to anyone who did not know them already:
1) when you bomb an enemy with no air force you can hit anything you want at any time you want to hit it, but
2) when an enemy has boots on the ground and you don\’t, all the bombing in the world will not stop that enemy from advancing and taking territory.
Excerpted from Howard Koplowitz\’s article for International Business Times:
TheIslamic State group is allegedly closing in on Baghdad, according toa report from a vicar at Iraq\’s only Anglican church that claims thejihadists formerly known as ISIS are roughly one mile away from theIraqi capital. Airstrikes against ISIS targets were supposed to stopthe group from taking Baghdad.
“TheIslamic State are now less than 2km (1.2 miles) away from enteringBaghdad. They said it could never happen and now it almost has,””Canon Andrew White of the Foundationfor Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, a British-basedcharity that supports Iraq\’s only Anglican church in Baghdad, saidon his Facebook page early Monday morning. “Obama says heoverestimated what the Iraqi Army could do. Well, you only need to behere a very short while to know they can do very, very little.”
TheChristian aid group was referring to the U.S. president\’s interviewSunday night on “60 Minutes,” the CBS news magazine show, whereObama conceded that his administration underestimatedthe ascendancy of ISIS. More than 1,000 Iraqi troops werereportedly killed Sunday in clashes with ISIS about 10 miles outsideof Baghdad.
Theadvance by ISIS toward Baghdad shows that the group isn\’t weakeningdespite U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq. ISIS executed 300 Iraqi soldierslast week during their march toward the Iraqi capital and attemptedto break into a prison in northern Baghdad.
My only dispute with the above commentary is Mr. Koplowitz\’s claim that “Obama conceded that his administration underestimated the ascendancy of ISIS”.
Mr. Obama did not concede that his administration did anything wrong. It was them – meaning the intelligence people – not him, who he blamed, for the underestimation.
Which has turned out to be a 100% lie. Add it to the pile.
In foreign policy generally, and military actions in particular, Barack Obama has managed to destroy our power, influence and credibility to the point that I seriously wonder if it can ever be regained – all the while, blaming anyone and everyone but himself for the unbroken string of failures – up to and including this latest exercise in target practice, which has accomplished nothing except to prove the two facts I started this blog with.
Memo to Father Time, in the form of a fervent request: is there any way of moving January 20, 2017 up, so that it comes faster? PLEASE?
