Stuck in Middle East, defending imaginary lines in the sand
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But the reality is this: It's not that simple. Nothing of a military nature ever is, particularly in the Middle East where promises of months become years and decades. The Islamic State is nearly as close to being a state as is, say, Iraq. Air power alone cannot change politics on the ground. And Obama is playing very fast and loose with military terms that have particular meanings: To "destroy" an enemy's capabilities is not to "defeat" him.
Americans may bemoan another protracted military commitment in the Middle East, but in truth we never left. We didn't leave after the first Gulf War nearly 25 years ago; pilots rotating to the region called it going back to "the sandbox." The 2002 invasion of Iraq speaks for itself. Now, the presence not just of aircraft carriers but Persian Gulf bases launching B-1B bombers speaks to the present day.
The notion that we left with the end of the Iraq war is nearly as much an illusion, put forth by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, as the idea that major combat operations there ended with the pronouncement of George W. Bush. I always thought it curious that there were no major homecoming parades for troops who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. Perhaps that was because neither was a clear-cut victory. Or perhaps that was because, in reality, we stayed.
So far, the administration's strategy toward the Islamic State is more of the same. A glance at a present-day map shows that the Islamic State is essentially an emerging country right in the heart of the old Sykes-Piquot map, occupying about 40 percent of Syria and, completely disregarding the old border, a similar amount of Iraq. Indeed, the Islamic State made a show recently of bulldozing the sand berm at that boundary. The borders of Sykes-Piquot are blurring quickly as national governments flail and the Arab world falls back on tribal and family structures.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2014/09/12/3844022_stuck-in-middle-east-defending.html?rh=1
