Bad Policy

Caroline Glick has written a very downbeat appraisal of U.S. policy vis-a-vis ISIS for RealClearPolitics. She calls it "Obama's Self-Defeating Fight."

Glick thinks what Obama has proposed is largely a very bad joke, and she explain why. Glick summarizes:

As a rising force in the Middle East, IS threatens US allies and it threatens global trade. To prevent its allies from being overthrown and to prevent shocks to the international economy, at a minimum, the US needs to contain IS.

Given the threat the Westerners joining the terror army constitute, and Washington’s unwillingness to stop them at the border, in all likelihood, the US needs to destroy IS where it stands. Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that the US is willing or able to either contain or defeat IS.

As far as potential allies are concern, she notes:

The Kurds will not fight for anything but Kurdistan. The Iraqi Army is a fiction. The Iraqi Sunnis support IS far more than they trust the Americans. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan will either cheer the US on from a distance, or in the best-case scenario, provide logistical support for its operations.

Guess who that leaves - the GIs nobody wants to send back to the region.