n/t

Unfortunately, money from the oil industry wants to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. And the military industrial complex doesn't mind that at all.

And they are all about the "control"

...illusion that we are doing something.

... it wouldn't be the first time we lacked foresight (and in this case the hindsight of recent and not so recent history) and it bit us in the ass.

I think he can understand the limits of "military adivsors" and the risks thereto. He gets that. That's why they are called "advisers." And I don't think Obama believes in "imposing democracy." He's holding the line, really, against ISIS. I don't see your "endless war" scenario at all.

It may be that those advisers tell Obama that Iraq as a single country simply cannot work. Then they come home...

Obama ain't Bush. This is a point that seems lost on a segment of the posters here when looking at foreign policy issues.
Iraq isn't Vietnam either, for the simple reason the Sunnis lack the manpower to take over the country against any sort of determined opposition by the Shia. They can hold the north, but there is no way they have anything approaching the force needed to invade and hold Shia territory in the south.
This is just Obama holding the line so as to keep things down at the level of a dull roar. Nothing else.

would come in Europe...but not here...sheesh, what a crap shoot this is...

but we have seen in the past how quickly events can overtake us and catch us by surprise. If Obama really thinks the current Iraqi crisis requires a political solution it seems odd that he would send military advisers rather than seasoned diplomats and statesmen. A move meant to "hold the line" for the sake of keeping up images can have unintended consequences. I do not think it is worth the risk to even crack the door open to military assistance, because those who want us back in Iraq will try to kick it open.

Frankly, I do not understand the lack of concern and I would certainly not characterize what is going on as a "dull roar."

in this effort? I think he is. It would be impossible for him not to. He's not GWB. We gotta give the guy a little credit...

a slippery slop we cannot control and unwittingly recommitting ourselves to Iraq militarily. It is folly to gloss over the fact we are sending special operations forces to be assigned to locations in Baghdad and individual brigade headquarters' throughout Iraq, putting them in harms way. We are also conducting surveillance of the situation in coordination with the Iraqis, and this could lead to the beginning of airstrikes. Here is an excerpt from an article in yesterday's NYT:

We voted for the guy. He inherited the mess of Iraq. I think you are right to point out the obvious pitfalls of his decision. My guess is that, among all the terrible decisions he could make, this was the least terrible. But I agree, it ain't good. Nothing about the situation is good. Iraq has been effed up since it was formed by colonial powers in the first place.

But again, we Dems had a choice in 2008 to elect our party's candidate to be POTUS. As such, we took a chance that once he got there, he might see things differently, and probably confronting facts he didn't have before. I don't recall anyone on DU accurately predicting what just happened in Iraq over the past week or so. Altho I think it would be helpful to go back and read what Biden was saying about the sectioning of Iraq way back when (in the 2008 primaries?). I plan on doing just that...

From what I have read, it seems a good bet that Iraq will not be the Iraq we knew in a few short years, or maybe months. Then other decisions will have to be made. My further guess is that the White House is now looking at a number of different scenarios developing rapidly.

At a certain point we have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise, why should we vote at all?

And I am disturbed by the notion a vote for the president should mean we give him a pass.

I supported Clinton for both terms of his presidency. I thought he was majorly wrong in two areas: DADT and Rwanda. I disagreed that he was pursuing the right policy. As such, I was gratified when he himself publicly came out and said he made mistakes in both decisions....

It's a sad thing to be placing one's hopes on the current Iraqi leadership, but that's where Obama has put me. I'm praying that the Iraqi big shots continue to be stupid and stubborn, unwilling to make any compromises which might lead to peace. I hope the Iraqi "army" leaves its weapons where they dropped them, in the midst of their massive, full-scale retreat from a small number of revolutionaries. Anything to get us out of there and keep it that way.

Again I ask: Hillary Clinton, are you taking good notes on all this? This is what it looks like, when a Democratic president really fucks up.

Not one just pretending to be liberal. The Hillary Clinton of the 1990s no longer exists.

No U.S. troops to be sent into Iraq... except these 300 hundred special ops people...

we should be helping the Kurds

And hung them out to dry following Operation Desert Storm.