The Caliphate

Three short paragraphs from Jerry Pournelle:

Perhaps the President will call off a fundraiser or two and pay some attention to the situation in the Middle East? The time to have been sending in support for the Kurds has passed; now they are under direct attack from the Caliphate. It will take more than Navy and Marine air strikes to assure the survival of Kurdistan. 

This crisis has been building ever since Bremer the Unsuccessful disbanded the Baathist Iraqi Army, and anyone who has not seen it coming ought to be dismissed as being incapable of service to the United States. Fortunately a number of officers have known this day would come, and we can hope they have been able to make some preparations; but it will be a near thing. 

It is not too late for a combination of US Special Forces and CIS, with plenty of logistic support, to work with the Kurds to roll back the Caliphate; but whether we have the will to do so is another matter.  If Iraqi Kurdistan falls, the Middle East situation become more serious than it has been for a long  time. American meddling has brought about this result; we have a moral obligation to restabilize and then get out.  I have little confidence that the President understands this.