Obama does have a strategy — but for the most part it hasn't worked.McManus echoes an Obama quote reported by interviewer Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine:
If the Iraqis themselves are not willing or capable to arrive at the political accommodations necessary to govern, if they are not willing to fight for the security of their country, we cannot do that for them.Let's assume, for purposes of discussion, that the President is correct - that we cannot do for the Iraqis what they will not do for themselves. Let us further assume that the Shia Iraqis are in fact not willing or able to make the political changes needed to earn the support of a divided nation.
Do we just let ISIS out-atrocity the Third Reich, out-murder the Khmer Rouge, molest and enslave the women of the region? Along the way watch them gobble up most Sunni-dominated areas of the Middle East?
Or do we aid the Shia Iranians and their Hezbollah allies to fight the Sunnis in a gladiatorial cage match until one side annihilates the other? Basically, reigniting the Iraq-Iran war after a 27 year ceasefire.
The President's underlying strategy seems to vacillate between withdrawal from the region and support of the Shia. Like the Soviets in World War II, the Shia hate us but need our help.
