Obama’s ‘Boot on the Ground’: Special Forces is an example, air power is another, of our reliance on military action with little thought given to what happens after. In the multi-ethnic Middle East where allegiance is to a tribe rather than a nation our foreign policy should shelve its obsession with the dysfunctional political status quo and let states such as Syria and Iraq split apart. With that change in focus The State Department ought to develop a boots on the ground team that identifies and funds tribal leaders directly, much like General Petraeus did during the surge in Iraq. And finally the Obama Administration ought to require a functioning political union built up and ready to populate a target region before the military is set on its mission of conquest.
Just as this was written a new headline appeared in the New York Times online: Iraqi Forces Retake Center of Ramadi from ISIS with a very telling comment: Dr. Luizard predicted that if Sunni leaders in Anbar Province and other Sunni-majority areas of Iraq were not granted legitimate autonomy, the Islamic State would make a comeback. “The Islamic State continues to make a better offer to the people it controls than the Baghdad government — whose return is the greatest fear of most inhabitants,” he said of the Sunnis of Anbar Province.
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