“In an action that would have been unthinkable only a few weeks ago…”
That
line turned up in several news stories recently…about the US & Iran
co-operating to fight ISIS…and also in reports of Syria bombing ISIS
inside Iraq. Ah, the quirky
Middle East! (When I visited it years ago a veteran reporter told
me..”you know as much today as you will ever know about the Middle
East.”..and that was on my first day there.)
NBC did an excellent report this week, pointing out the 100th
anniversary of the assassination that started WW1..after which the
victors carved up the old Ottoman
Empire (Turkey was on the losing side in WW1) without much regard for
ethnic and religious concerns, and those artificial boundaries haunt us
today in the sectarian strife, particularly in Iraq.
So
after spending blood and treasure and time in Iraq, why should the US
spend more? Even more important, why should we spend two BILLION, as Mr.
Obama proposes, in Syria
to support “moderates”..in an area where “moderates” are hard to
determine and may only be the least BAD alternative.
Even
more troubling, after all we did to train and equip the Iraqi army,
30,000 of them fled Mosul, reportedly in the face of a few hundred ISIS
troops. That surely makes
any policy we now adopt towards Iraq in great doubt.
A wise man said years ago…”Those who will not learn from the lessons of history, are condemned to relive it.”
DON’T WE EVER LEARN??
Trying
to learn myself, I have suggested in this blog several times that
Kentucky should have more “open” primaries where those registered
Independent could vote in either
of the major party primaries if no independent was running. I know this
is tricky.
In Mississippi last week, incumbent Thad Cochran beat the
Tea Party candidate in the GOP runoff by appealing to Democrats,
especially black Democrats, to vote for him. Mississippi
permits this under its “open” primary laws. That is not what I have in
mind for Kentucky, and it illustrates just how tricky election rules can
be.
I'm just sayin'...
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