We're Back

Well I wish I was more surprised by this. We are back in Iraq with military force. Listen closely because those in the government and some pundits will be complaining it is too little to late. Personally it seems to me it is too much way ahead of the never that would have been appropriate. The rationale for bombing was that ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria a terrorist group) was getting too close to where the United States military advisers were stationed in Iraq. The simple thing would have been not to send the military advisers. No advisers, no threat, no United States bombing mission. Should we take any action in Iraq?

There is a refugee crisis in northern Iraq. Ten thousand or so Christians have been forced to abandon their homes in Mosul due to threats from ISIS. Members of the Yazidi faith have been forced to seek refuge on Mount Sinjar and have been without food and water for several days. Yazidi are monotheists in that they believe in one god. God created the world and entrusted it to seven angels the preeminent among them is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. Why would ISIS care about this small religious group? The Yazidi have a reputation as devil worshipers because one of the other names of Melek Taus is Shaytan. The name Shaytan is the name in the Koran for Satan. The Yazidi believe the source of good and evil is the heart and spirit of humans not Melek Taus. The problem, in my opinion, is religion in general. Killing other people because they don't believe in the same magical person in the sky you do is the height of stupidity. Religions command their believers to love one another with the exception apparently of when those religions don't hold exactly the same beliefs. At that point if appears it is okay to kill them. So what does our military presence do to resolve these issues? Nothing really. We just spend money dropping bombs, providing food and water and military hardware and tactical advice.

If we want to address a humanitarian crisis maybe we should turn our attention south and address more effectively the unaccompanied minors who are coming to our country to escape violence in their homelands. Violence that in part has been created by our drug policies and by our meddling in the governments of these countries over the past 50 years or so. Our actions in attempting to create democracies like the one here in other countries has been a dismal failure. Those places lack the foundation on which to build and keep in mind the creation of ours required a revolution and a civil war.