I salute our Commander-in Chief for not trying to conquer the world...

[daschess1987]

Suggestion strategies for use against IS: offer incentives to Turkey for sealing off their southern border, arm the shit out of the Kurds, conduct massive drone strikes against them anytime they can be drawn out into the open--especially if they're already on the advance, and avoid God damned tragedies known as "civilian casualties" like the plague.

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Conquering the world is the easy part.

Maintaining it is the hard part.

[Laelth]

2. Hear, hear! k&r n/t

-Laelth

[freshwest]

3. Well said. What a horrible job being a president is. Most of us couldn't stand it.

[calimary]

7. Well said, yourself, freshwest! It's amazing to ponder even wanting the job.

And it is illuminating to observe the different public strutters flattering themselves into thinking they're presidential material - and arrogant enough to expect millions more to agree. Seriously, sometimes I think anyone who wants to run for president would have to have the ol' noggin examined. Why would you want it? Heck, EVERYBODY's pissed at you all the time, including those ostensibly on your own side. It's the Ultimate Thankless Job.

[Dems to Win]

4. Bomb every US-supplied humvee, artillery piece, tank in ISIS hands

Destroy all the weaponry the US left behind that is now being used by ISIS, then come home and let the people of the region sort out their problems and borders.

That's my proposed strategy.

[Turbineguy]

5. Not conquer the world

that's against the Constitution!

Apparently.

[calimary]

6. I also like the way he stops and thinks about it. Puts a lot of thought and analysis into it.

Isn't the type who juste knee-jerkedly picks up the sword and starts waving it around, stirring things up. I like the cool, reasoned approach. I'd much rather keep the temperature on simmer (or below, even), rather than at a rolling boil.

[rickyhall]

8. Maybe we should build self destruct into weapons

"Now a real killer, when he picked up the ZF-1, would’ve immediately asked about the little red button on the bottom of the gun."
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg

[IrishAyes]

9. K&R OP for support of President Obama

and his understanding that we're actually in worse danger by trying to conquer the whole damned world like the GOP wants.

At least the Kurds have shown they can and will fight to protect themselves. That's the sort of people we should help. While avoiding civilian casualties entirely is next to impossible given how ISIS operates, with that taken into account, I've never known a group in my time whose combat troops needed carpet bombing more. They're bad enough on the best day, but they've at least reportedly taken to crucifying Christian captives. Not much worse way to go.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. Avoiding civilian casualties is not an option.

Unless, and possibly even if, the US acts on a scale that will almost certainly cause moderate numbers of civilian casualties in the short term and potentially larger numbers in the long term, ISIS will murder large numbers of civilians.

All the USA can do is either

a) try to select a course of action that minimises the number of civilian casualties.
b) try to select a course of action that minimises the number of civilian casualties if causes.


I think that a) is probably the right thing to aim for, but b) is not absurd - arguably it's more important not to kill than to save lives. But there is no cause of action available whose likely outcome is not appalling, as far as I can see.