Iraq - What do we do?

[indian82]

Let's not get into a debate about whether we should have gotten involved in the first place under Bush or whether we left in the right circumstances under Obama. This is where we are today. Both can certainly be questioned in hindsight.

I am really torn as to what we should do. The fact that we were there and deposed Saddam has a lot to do with the instability & how/why ISIS moved in. I don't necessarily have any problem with the 300 we are sending there, but I do not think it should expand. This admin and the citizens at this point do not have the will to sustain another extended battle or keep troops there long-term.

However, I find it extremely bothersome that these radicals are using our tanks, weapons and trucks to do battle with both in Iraq and seemingly in Syria. I would like to see an aerial effort to see if we can locate some and take them out. With the technology today, I am surprised we don't have GPS that could find our own equipment. But beyond that I am inclined to say we should not get involved any more. But we better not reduce our military any more just in case.

[Deleted]

I don't think there is anything we should or can do to "fix" this situation to anyone's satisfaction. There are now four factions in Iraq - Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites and ISIS! Any action we take will be seen as favoring one group and opposing the other two original Iraq populations. The government is pro Shiite and I don't see any meaningful change that can be put in place to fix things before ISIS overruns most of the country. We broke it but we are incapable of fixing it. Rebuilding the Iraqi army included giving them our hardware - a bad idea but they had to be armed. Face it, this country is not the DIY world improver that we see ourselves as.

[indian82]

Jun 24, 2014 5:00:08 GMT -5 @misspractice said:

I don't think there is anything we should or can do to "fix" this situation to anyone's satisfaction. There are now four factions in Iraq - Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites and ISIS! Any action we take will be seen as favoring one group and opposing the other two original Iraq populations. The government is pro Shiite and I don't see any meaningful change that can be put in place to fix things before ISIS overruns most of the country. We broke it but we are incapable of fixing it. Rebuilding the Iraqi army included giving them our hardware - a bad idea but they had to be armed. Face it, this country is not the DIY world improver that we see ourselves as.

I agree. We better not expand the 300 'advisers' we have there. Just out of principle we should look for our equipment and take it out. We didn't leave it there for it to take down Baghdad or battle into Syria.

[glen]

The Iraqis need to take some responsibility on their own now. I just don't know who "the Iraqi's" actually are. No way they should be getting overrun so easily. If that's the case then so be it. The issue is how does this impact the USA 1 - 5 years from now. I'm not sure how this plays into Syria or Iran.

I'm also more than a little upset that US soldiers have died and we could have gotten to this point losing virtually nobody.

PS: MP - I agree with you now that we have a lead from behind attitude. The US is practically non-existent on the world stage at this point.