It is not our responsibility to save every country around the world from being taken over by a group whose politics and methods we don't like. The duty belongs to the countries Isis is trying to take. Turkey has to put on its big boy pants and try to stop ISIS, or stop b*tching about it. Kobane falling is Turkey's problem, not our problem.
The U.S. is not the World's global police force. Obama has already gone farther than I would. He authorized air strikes - I would not, except perhaps to save the Yazedis, which turned out not to be necessary, according to the advance teams.
When ISIS takes Kobane, it will do what it does everywhere else: Give out pamphlets explaining Sharia law, and inform the citizens of the region that cigarettes, drugs and liquor are banned, and women must appropriately cover themselves. ISIS will take over the tax system. It will restore public services like water, courts, police and traffic control. It will collect a tax from the wealthy. It will set up nursing homes and deliver toys and foods to the poor and orphans. ISIS will provide jobs and pay the workers.
Maybe the people of the Middle East, who I assume are predominately muslim, should ask themselves: How bad is it to live in under ISIS, before panicking. Is it worse than living under Bashar? There are non-democratic systems that are livable. Let them work it out. We gave what we could: airstrikes and intelligence and tons of arms that cost us a billion or more dollars in the past few months and more each day.
We need our money here at home. For social security and medicare, for education, to repair our infrastructures so bridges don't collapse killing our citizens, and for research so we can cure diseases. Those billions another war would cost us are better spent providing better care for Americans at home. We, the people of America, should be our nation's top priority.
ISIS has said if the U.S. minds its own business, it won't come after us. Fanboys don't speak for ISIS. ISIS doesn't provide mail order training -- like al Qaeda. ISIS and AQ are at odds. ISIS is at odds with JaN. Let them kill each other off. We should have no role in their civil war, particularly since it's going to take a lot more than air strikes to take out ISIS. They are already in the 7th inning. We're starting way too late.
We didn't go to Rwanda, we didn't go to Darfur, or to Syria last year. We don't go around the world to impose democracy any more because when we do, we lose-- lives as well as dollars.
And this is no longer 1966. Country Joe's line "Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box" is outdated. Our troops won't come home in coffins. They'll be lucky to get their heads shipped back. Most likely, their remains won't come home at all.
Finally, the writing is practically on the wall that the Afghan Taliban are back in action, and Iraq is a mess. We can't fight in all these places. Bush's unfortunate decision to go to war in Iraq has left Obama with a sense that we owe it to Iraq and Afghanistan to keep them from falling into extremist hands. I disagree, but if he capitulates, and decides to send troops anywhere, it should be against al Qaida, whose grand mission remains to strike the U.S.
We have led Turkey to the water with our airstrikes. If they aren't willing to drink, there's nothing else we can or should do.
We should strive to be the beacon of liberty at home. The rest of the world needs to fight its own battles.
Staying out of ISIS' business will also reduce the chances of lone wolf attacks at home. I have an idea on how to further reduce such attacks, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.
