The Common Ills: Barack's 'glorious' plan falls to earth

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Barack's 'glorious' plan falls to earth

US President Barack Obama has presented repeated bombings of Iraq as a 'plan' and a way to destroy the Islamic State. As noted yesterday, it hasn't stopped IS from advancing towards Baghdad and the US military has stated IS has adapted to the bombings.

Criticism is now also coming from within Iraq. Gianni Valente (Vatican Insider) speaks with Patriarch Louis Sako of the Chaldean Church who states of the 'plan' being carried out:

All this looks to me like a dirty political game. Bombing these jihadists will not make them disappear, that’s for sure. Many innocent individuals risk being killed. Infrastructures are destroyed and will remain destroyed. The Americans have already done this: they destroyed the country and did not rebuild it. The most serious part of it all is that now everyone is saying the war is going to go on for years. This sends out two different and very dangerous messages simultaneously. The message to jihadists is: don’t worry, you have plenty of time to get organised, get more money together and enlist more paid militants. The message to the refugees is: this situation’s going to go on for years, the only future you have is away from here, away from your homes. It’s best if you leave if you can. If we are to really get rid of extremist groups once and for all, we have to work on education and training and come up with plans that show how false and monstrous this bloodthirsty ideology really is.

The head of the Catholic Church -- Chaldeans belong to the Catholic Church -- is Pope Francis. Reuters reports he's called for a summit to be held from October 2nd to the 4th so that a discussion can take place regarding a just response to the Islamic State.

At present, the violence continues in Iraq with Sinan Salaheddin (AP) noting at least 19 violent deaths so far today while Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts at least 256 violent deaths on Monday. Is this how the 'plan' was supposed to work?

How are people supposed to measure success or failure in Barack's 'plan'?

Doyle McManus (Los Angeles Times) observes, "When the president talks about his new offensive against the extremist group that calls itself Islamic State, he sounds as warlike as George W. Bush ever did."

So when does he face any of the hard questions -- and criticism -- Bully Boy Bush did?

The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley -- updated: