Prayers for Canada

In memorial of the tradgedy in Ottawa.

What a senseless act in a country that rarely sees it.

Iraq 3.0?

There may be simply no option here.  No matter what anyone says, Iraq just seems to get worse.  Maybe the Ottomans were right nearly a century ago by dividing the area into three provinces.

JCS chairman Martin Dempsey is proposing the US troops on the ground in Iraq assume a more direct role in trying to stop ISIS.  They were directing the airstrikes hitting ISIS but it seems that the US is trying to give the Iraqi army some backbone. 

If this is what we have to do, then the cause in Iraq may be lost.

But what are we supposed to do?  Let Iraq collapse? On the other hand, do we continue to fight a cause that is collapsing?

What the Pentagon is probably hoping for is to stop ISIS long enough for the Islamic tendency toward factionalism to kick in and the self-proclaimed caliphate will collapse on its own.

The frightening thing is that this might be the strategy that might work?

This is the Middle East and it has been this way since at least 3500 BC. No amount of airstrikes is going to change that.  It's not anything partisan, its just history.