Let’s talk about Iraq again, just for a bit, as things are still developing. First up is this bit from the always-worth-reading Dr. Thomas Sowell: A Bitter After-Taste. Excerpt:
Some say that we should never have gone into Iraq in the first place. Others say we should never have pulled our troops out when we did, leaving behind a weak and irresponsible government in charge.
At a minimum, Iraq should put an end to the notion of “nation-building,” especially nation-building on the cheap, and to the glib and heady talk of “national greatness” interventionists who were prepared to put other people’s lives on the line from the safety of their editorial offices.
Those who are ready to blame President George W. Bush for everything bad that has happened since he left office should at least acknowledge that he was a patriotic American president who did what he did for the 
good of the country — an assumption that we can no longer safely make about the current occupant of the White House.
I rarely disagree with Dr. Sowell and do not disagree with the substance of his assertions in this article, although in response to that last point in the excerpt I tend to think President Obama’s misadventures in foreign policy are probably better ascribed to ineptitude than maliciousness. And let’s be honest, a good deal of that ineptitude was on the part of the previous administration as well, not least of which was the notion – as Dr. Sowell points out – that we could do nation-building “on the cheap.”
But the end result is the same – gains won at the expense of American blood and treasure are not dissolving, giving way to gains made by the very worst sort of bloodthirsty, Dark Ages-type savages.
So what to do? Our pals at The Atheist Conservative have some interesting ideas on the matter. Excerpt:
Yes. It would be greatly good if the savage fight now underway between two Muslim armies in Iraq, Sunni and Shia, could end in the destruction of both.
We quote from an article at American Thinker, by Mike Konrad, who argues the desirability of leaving the two sides to fight it out:
I know, I know, the recent ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) gains have everyone scared. No doubt, the Islamophilic administration will want to step in, and save Islam from itself once again. Let me advocate a course of action that will make sense to all sides in America; the left and right; from militarists to pacifists: Let the Muslims kill each other. …
ISIS is presently a large group of thugs with guns. They have no navy, no air force, except for a few captured helicopters, which they will soon break. The only ones they can threaten are their fellow Muslims. If they take over Iraq, who cares? They will soon reduce the Levant to the seventh century.
Yr. obdt. approves – that may indeed be the best option for the United States to follow. Let them kill each other, and by all means let Russia and China also attempt to wrestle with the Mesopotamian tar baby. We’ve had enough. There may even be some pieces to pick up when the dust settles – then again, there may not.
Either way, I think we’ve done enough. There have been mistakes made in the past, but that’s past – and as that great American philosopher and sage, W.C. Fields, was known to state: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No point in making a damn fool of yourself over it.”
