Indeed, what really surprises me is that anyone was surprised by this turn of events. You mean all of our prescient political/military observers couldn't see this coming? IT'S THE MIDDLE EAST FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, AND THE COPS JUST LEFT---OF COURSE THIS WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN!!!
But, be that as it may, the Iraqi government, which once couldn't wait to get the US out of their sandbox, is now asking for our support in the form of airstrikes (for now). How's that for irony? And, oh by the way, airstrikes today often lead to Infantrymen tomorrow---beware, those of you with good intentions.
The other ironic story line at play here is the collective hand wringing going on in the aforementioned right-of-center talk show world. There, we are bemoaning the situation where so much of the territory which American Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen fought and died for has been taken over, yet again, by the latest version of the very insurgent forces whom they were asked to defeat. This, of course, only happened once the original "Shock and Awe" settled down and our leadership figured out that if you disband a defeated Army and put 450,000 guys with guns and no job on the street, along with the already in place religious fanatics, you have just armed an insurgency or, at least, a militia which you will, later, have to fight. Thank you, Paul Bremmer.
While I share everyone's outrage over the American losses in Iraq, no commentator I have heard in this current discussion, has mentioned, or even alluded to the fact that, hard, as it is to come to grips with killed and wounded American soldiers, those kids shouldn't have been in Iraq in the first place! When W, Rummy, and Wolfowitz, et al, decided to short change the necessary incursion into Afghanistan in order to prosecute an elective war, based on flaky assumptions, in Iraq, they doomed both efforts to failure and put those soldiers, sent to Iraq, unnecessarily in harms way.
Those of you who are interested can see more of my views on this issue in this blog's archive entry from March 21st, 2013. Have at it, and let me know what you think.