What are you thinking, Mr President?

Iraq

Until a few days ago, I thought Isis was a river in Oxford, as well as the name of the second Oxford University rowing eight. I now know it is a group of jihadists, Islamic fundamentalist thugs who practise their vile form of cruelty and physical harm in the name of religion. The West has been caught out as Isis has taken over cities and towns in Iraq. The Iraqi government has called upon the United States for help. The Obama administration has responded by considering USAF making strategic air strikes on Isis forces and sending three hundred “military advisers” to Iraq. This from a President who opposed the war in Iraq when he was a US senator.

Surely, the President is old enough to remember Vietnam. American involvement started with the Eisenhower administration rescuing French forces at Diem Bien Phu, followed by military creep. Kennedy sent a few thousand advisers to South Vietnam and was considering a military escalation when he was assassinated. The Johnson administration went full out and fought a long and unsuccessful war. Nixon spent years trying to clear up the mess made by his predecessors. For all those years, the Americans believed in the domino effect, refusing to recognise that they had interfered in a civil war.

Iraq is divided not so much by territory but by tribal forces, whose religious beliefs are different. The militant elements of the Sunnis and the Shiites have been at each other’s throats for decades. Saddam Hussein kept these opposing peoples in check by force and by fighting wars with his neighbours. When America and the United Kingdom removed Saddam, they created a vacuum, making no lasting peace. Now, the Sunnis welcome the acts of Isis, who are also Sunnis. What is happening in Iraq is another civil war.

Why should America involve itself in the conflict? Will it be under the auspices of the United Nations? The President is not even seeking the approval of Congress, so what chance is there he will build an alliance through the U N?

What I fail to understand is this. Other Middle East countries must be worried by the actions of Isis and the possibility that other militant forces may emerge. Syria is already engaged in an awful civil war. Egypt has been engaged in a revolution which has not yet resolved itself. Iran remains a powder keg.

Each of these nations has an air force and an army. In addition, America has armed Saudi Arabia forces to the hilt. Why aren’t any of these nations coming forward to help Iraq with strategic air strikes on Isis? Presumably, they don’t care to engage themselves in a localised conflict between Islam and Islam. Why would the President yet again give the followers of Islam more reasons to hate America? Middle East politics confuse all but a few experts, none of whom, by the way, seem to be present in the British Foreign Office, nor in Foggy Bottom.

What good would 300 American advisers do in this situation? They will soon advise the Pentagon that more numbers are needed and before the President knows it, mission creep will become a reality as history repeats itself.

What is happening in Iraq is a local problem and one the Iraqis themselves should solve, with the help of their close neighbours. The West should stay out, unless the United Nations resolves otherwise.