re: #107 blueraven

Even with intel on the ground and other intel efforts, the US wants Iraq to stand on its own, and coming in with airstrikes or UAVs every time a couple hundred thugs start trouble, then you’ve got a mess that you’ll never get out of.

Drawing the line means forcing the Iraqi government to stand up for itself, even if it means the potential for it to fall apart. I don’t think the Iraqi government quite realizes what they’ve done by not pushing the military to act, or they have, and they’ve run out of options since they don’t have the kind of military they thought they had (or even what we thought they had after spending billions on their training).

Airstrikes here and there probably wont change things, especially if the Iraqi military isn’t going to fight on the ground to retake those areas. Heck, even if the Iraqi air force took action, I’m not sure the Iraqi military would act. It’s on the military to do something, and it looks like they’ve gone and disappeared.