Mr. Obama Did Not Learn

Someone said stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result.  Over and over the United States has tried to do battle with surrogate armies, in Vietnam, in Afghanistan, in Iraq. It never worked.  In every case the reasons are the same: unless they are psychopathic, people will only willingly die for something they really care about.  Nobody cares about the corrupt government of Afghanistan except the corrupt governors and their beneficiaries; nobody cares about the corrupt government of Iraq except the kleptocrats.  Obama, induced or persuaded not to learn, has announced he is going to do the same thing over again.

In Iraq, Shi'a care about Shi'a, Sunni about Sunni, Kurds about Kurds.  ISIS march south was stopped because Shi'a militias, and possibly even parts of the regular army, cared that ISIS not reach into Shi'a territory, where they and their families and co-religionists live.   But the Shi'a will not fight into the Sunni north and west of Iraq, at least not successfully. They showed is much in the failure to take Fallujah and in their panicked retreat in the north. The Kurds have an interest--securing a Kurdistan. Except marginally, their militia will not fight to secure the rest of Iraq.

Iraq is three nations with many tribes. What Obama owes the world, and himself, is to  show why the colonial manufacture of Picot and Sikes deceit is worth poverty and death to keep in one piece. If he had an answer that is not risible, he would have given it. He has none. He has made the wrong decision and America will come to regret it, as we have come to regret G.W. Bush's decisions.