The Common Ills: 'Turned corner' leads back to the same war

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

'Turned corner' leads back to the same war

The Los Angeles Times' Doyle McManus observes, "Even without American boots on the ground, Obama has entered the United States in its fourth Iraq war. It won’t be over quickly. As the president said, this is going to be a long-term project."

It's a reality few want to tackle, let alone acknowledge.

BBC News, noting the United Kingdom's involvement, reported yesterday, "Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said the UK's military involvement in the country could last for 'months', and has revealed that RAF surveillance aircraft are operating there." However, wire services carry British Prime Minister David Cameron's denial, "Britain is not going to get involved in another war n Iraq. We're not going to be putting boots on the ground."

And, like Barack Obama, Cameron thinks as long as he can insist that it's just dropping bombs, it's not war.

Since when?

I seem to recall -- and I'm no historian -- the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor and that leading the US into WWII.

But, by Barack's logic, that wasn't combat, it wasn't anything at all.

Barack's logic?

Yesterday, he was all boasts and bluster about the dam in Mosul with statements such as:

Today, with our support, Iraqi and Kurdish forces took a major step forward by recapturing the largest dam in Iraq, near the city of Mosul. The Mosul dam fell under terrorist control earlier this month, and is directly tied to our objective of protecting Americans in Iraq.
[. . .]
Iraqi and Kurdish forces took the lead on the ground and performed with courage and determination. So this operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working together and taking the fight to ISIL. If they continue to do so, they will have the strong support of the United States of America.

Today?

Someone forgot to tell IS that the battle was over. Lizzie Dearden (Independent) reports the battle for the dam continues and that, "Government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are trying to push back the militants on the ground around the dam, which is 45 miles from Mosul."

Someone also forgot to tell Barack the way it works with the Iraq War: Any time you try to spin success, reality slaps you in the face.

At this point, they're have been so many 'turned corners' in the Iraq War, the world is left dizzy.

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and McClatchy Newspapers -- updated: