How Is The President's ISIS Policy Working?

[Reub]

Now that Obama has struck back against ISIS with ruthless sporadic bombing can anyone say that his policy is working?  ISIS continues to take land and murder everyone in its path. After hearing former Defense Secretary Pannetta speak of Obama's lack of leadership on this and  other defense issues like Ukraine and having seen reports on just how long our President actually has known about this threat despite calling them the JV team, I am starting to lose confidence in him. Can someone please explain his ISIS policy and do they think it's actually working?

[Jan Van]

... I am starting to lose confidence in him. ...

Really Reub, starting to lose confidence? 

Serious question. When was the last time the USA was unequivocally successful when intervening militarily?

[barrett]

Serious question. When was the last time the USA was unequivocally successful when intervening militarily?

The first Gulf War? Hussein stayed in power but I don't know that the US was necessarily trying to remove him. The US kept vital oil interests and established no-fly zones in the north & south of Iraq. Gosh, doesn't that sound like a situation not worth tampering with? Not saying there weren't missteps but war is sloppy.

[Reub]

... I am starting to lose confidence in him. ...

Really Reub, starting to lose confidence? 

Serious question. When was the last time the USA was unequivocally successful when intervening militarily?

When was the last time that the USA has been this unequivocally unsuccessful when intervening militarily? And against a JV team no less!

[Mountaineer]

When was the last time that the USA has been this unequivocally unsuccessful when intervening militarily? And against a JV team no less!

One could make a really good argument the answer to your question is .... drum roll,  ..... WWII for our last success.  Even then things were quite "tight" for a few years with victory seemingly elusive.  Can you imagine today if we had that number of deaths, or if we were fighting a real war and not just playing around for the "theater" of it?  The press and public would cave quickly unless there were a military coup; the only question would be what language the losers would be speaking.  Maybe it is  good (short term view) that our leader and the military weapon of choice are both drones.    Hmmmm, maybe Hollywood can come up with an appropriate movie:  "Drone Alone".  Would be good for the double entendre.

... Mountaineer

[Ad Orientem]

I have no idea how his policy is working since it is not even two months old. I can only imagine this sort of discussion in say January of 1942, demanding to know why we had not yet occupied Tokyo and Berlin. Wars (and that is clearly what the author of this question is looking for) are rarely won or even organized in months much less weeks.

But for what it's worth there is this just in...

Turkey to let US & Allied Forces Use Bases in Fight Against ISIS...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/world ... -iraq.html

[TripleB]

... I am starting to lose confidence in him. ...

Really Reub, starting to lose confidence? 

Serious question. When was the last time the USA was unequivocally successful when intervening militarily?

1812?

[Reub]

I have no idea how his policy is working since it is not even two months old. I can only imagine this sort of discussion in say January of 1942, demanding to know why we had not yet occupied Tokyo and Berlin. Wars (and that is clearly what the author of this question is looking for) are rarely won or even organized in months much less weeks.

But for what it's worth there is this just in...

Turkey to let US & Allied Forces Use Bases in Fight Against ISIS...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/world ... -iraq.html

I don't believe that we were fighting the "JV" team in '42.

[Jan Van]

Serious question. When was the last time the USA was unequivocally successful when intervening militarily?

The first Gulf War? Hussein stayed in power but I don't know that the US was necessarily trying to remove him. The US kept vital oil interests and established no-fly zones in the north & south of Iraq. Gosh, doesn't that sound like a situation not worth tampering with? Not saying there weren't missteps but war is sloppy.

Some interesting things going on back then too.

The First Iraq War Was Also Sold to the Public Based on a Pack of Lies

Maybe ambassador Glaspie should have been more clear to Hussein that the USA would not tolerate Iraq capturing Q8?

The no-fly zones didn't help the Shia and Kurds much with their uprising: 1991 uprisings in Iraq

[Jan Van]

The War Nerd: Nobody could have predicted Islamic State’s retreat from Kobane (except me)

Because, very simply, the US was waiting eagerly for the town to fall. There were all sorts of reasons for this, and none make any real sense. The two biggest are: (a) The hick Islamists running Turkey tilt toward IS and hate Kurds, all Kurds, with the same insane virulence that Turks hate all their neighbors, and especially any minority that dares to identify itself as non-Turkish; (b) The YPG militia defending Kobane is linked to the PKK movement, which is nominally “Socialist,”? and American apparatchiks, no matter who’s officially in charge, have never un-learned the anti-Commie nonsense they learned at Georgetown; and (c) The “brave, doomed defenders of Kobane”? were worth much more dead than alive, much more in defeat than in victory. If they lost, they’d be beheaded by the vicious loons in IS, and those severed-head videos would be great US agitprop, a great little way to put more pressure on Turkey over the theatre the US really cares about—Iraq.

That changed after October 7. For whatever reason, the strikes got serious, as you’ll see if you look at the graph at the end of this BBC story.

In the ten days since then, air support seems to have been effective. So, you might reasonably ask, what happened on October 7? Well, that happens to be the day that Leon Panetta, Obama’s own ex-Secretary of Defense and CIA head, went public calling the President a wimp who needed to put the proverbial boots on the literal ground in Syria.

Next day, suddenly USAF air strikes started lighting up the idiots marking their positions around Kobane with that familiar black IS flag. Probably not pure coincidence. DC people have thick hides when dealing with jibes from pundits or opposition senators, but when your own SecDef/CIA boss calls you out for ducking the enemy, you have to tell the USAF to start actually hitting people.

[Coffee]

Panama? S. Korea? Costa Rica? Colombia?

[Reub]

Hi Coffee. Great to see you still come by this place every once in a while! Your contribution is sorely missed!!