Another Middle East Debacle?

Caspar Weinberger and Colin Powell

A new air war in Iraq or Syria or, as Pat Buchanan asks, World War III for Iraq? Pat writes, “Congress must be forced to debate and vote on this war so we can hold them accountable for what is to come.” Pat points out, “Finally, why is this our fight, 6,ooo miles away, and not theirs?”

Congress, and for that matter Americans in general, would benefit from taking a look at the Cato Institute’s Chris Preble’s The Power Problem, as well as former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit Michael Scheuer’s Marching Toward Hell, and the original Weinberger/Powell Doctrine.

Pat is on track in today’s article. Iraq and Syria are not America’s problem.

Congress must be forced to debate and vote on this war, first, so we can hold them accountable for what is to come. Second, so we can force them to come to consensus on just what kind of outcome in this region is acceptable, and attainable, and at what cost.

What will victory look like? What will be the cost in blood and treasure? How long are we prepared to fight this war, an end to which does not today seem to be anywhere in sight?

How reasonable is it to expect that the Kurdish peshmerga and an Iraqi Army that fled Kirkuk, Fallujah and Mosul, will be able to recapture the Sunni regions of Iraq?

Finally, why is this our fight, 6,000 miles away, and not theirs?