Hats off to the President for signalling strength to international enemies. I do not mean to draw attention to the fly spoiling the ointment but his statement today overlooked a concrete reality. ISIS may not be synonymous with Islam but its members belong to it because they are convinced Muslims. Ignoring this also misses the fact that the differences between Sunni and Shia represents the most fundamental tension in the Middle East. They began fighting less than 20 years after the death of Muhammad and joint military strikes against a common threat is not going to erase centuries of conflict. For a picture of this tension see the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) which killed a million people. I hope that Obamas strategy can achieve what he wants but there are reasons to be skeptical.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 23:32:40 +0000
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