Cross-posted from RT
This is the way the multi-trillion dollar Global War on Terror (GWOT) ends: not with a bang, but with a bigger bang.
The GWOT, since its conceptualization 13 years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, is the gift that keeps on giving. And no gift is bigger than a Transformer Al-Qaeda on steroids -- bigger, brasher, and wealthier than anything Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri had ever dreamt of; the IS (Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS) of Caliph Ibrahim, former Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
US President Barack Obama, before deploying his golf holidays in Martha's Vineyard, casually dropped that bombing the Caliph's goons in Iraq will take months. One may interpret it as another layer of the Obama administration's self-avowed "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" foreign policy doctrine, not so subtly mocked by prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Shock and Awe in 2003 destroyed the whole of Baghdad's infrastructure in only a few hours.
Obama also confirmed the US was showering Iraq again with humanitarian bombing "to protect American interests" (first and foremost) and, as an afterthought, "human rights in Iraq."
One could not possibly expect Obama to declare the US would now bomb "our" allies the House of Saud, who have supported/financed/weaponized IS, in Syria and Iraq. The same erstwhile ISIS that thoroughly enjoyed the marvels of US military training in a secret base in Jordan.
Obama also could not possibly explain why the US always supported ISIS in Syria and now decides to bomb them in Iraq. Oh, the perils of "Don't Do Stupid Stuff."
So a quick translation applies.
Obama's bombing of the Caliph's goons has absolutely nothing to do with US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power's much beloved R2P ("responsibility to protect") doctrine -- as in the responsibility to protect up to 150,000 Yazidis, not to mention Kurds and remaining Christians, from a "potential" genocide carried out by the Caliph's goons.
The whole fighter jets + drones bombing exercise, lasting "months," has to do with the Benghazi syndrome.
The Caliph's goons were dead set on conquering Irbil -- the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is led by the wily Massoud Barzani -- a long-time US client/vassal.
The US maintains a consulate in Irbil. Crammed with CIA types. Or, as the New York Times so lovingly puts it, "thousands of Americans."
Enter Benghazi. This is an electoral year. Obama is absolutely terrified of another Benghazi -- which Republicans have been trying non-stop to blame on his administration's incompetence. The last thing Obama needs is the Caliph's goons killing "diplomats" in Erbil.
That would certainly raise a tsunami of questions all over again about the shady CIA weapon-smuggling racket -- as in arming Syrian "rebels" with weapons from Libya -- at the time Benghazi took place. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, of course, also knew about it all. But then, and especially now, no one should know that the CIA was weaponizing the bulk of the future Caliph's forces.
Regime change or bustObama said this humanitarian bombing adventure could last "months," but in fact it could last only days.
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