Barack Obama’s Tragedy

It’s a tragic turn of events that Obama’s presidency is facing these days. Elected by the people to get the U.S. out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama now is going to war in the Middle East himself.

The president avoids the word “war,” preferring instead to call it an anti-terror action; he responds to the murdering bands of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria with targeted strikes against individuals and terrorist groups in Yemen and Somalia.

But of course, it is a war—the third Iraq war in 25 years—and it has already begun: The U.S. Air Force has flown more than 160 sorties against Islamic State in the past few weeks.

Obama is trying to forge a military coalition, just as both Bush I and Bush II did before him. On Monday of this week, representatives from 29 nations met in Paris, but that represented more a coalition of the unwilling than was the case earlier.

The unwilling president-warrior ran up against barely concealed, and in some cases even open, opposition, particularly from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, who all seemed to have more pressing problems than opposing Islamic State. Obama better not be counting on any of them for much support for going into battle. Damned if they want to stabilize the Assad government in Syria by wiping out his greatest enemy—and they certainly don’t want to strengthen their archenemy, Shiite Iran.

NATO ally Turkey, over whose borders large numbers of jihadi come and go at will, wants to stay out of it altogether; not only because Islamic State is holding and threatening 49 Turkish hostages, but because toppling Assad is a Turkish priority as well. The Turks don’t even want to let the U.S. use their airbases.

So it’s down to the French and Australians as the only others willing to use their warplanes to participate in attacks. When America looks around, it will see that those willing to follow the Islamic State murderers “to the gates of hell,” as Joe Biden declared, amount to just a few Western allies.

Middle East expert Kenneth Pollack warns, “But the last thing that the U.S. wants is a new crusade of the West in the Middle East.” That is exactly what might appear to be the case, at least from the Islamist viewpoint.

Obama hesitated for a long time before getting involved in the Syrian civil war. Pressured by the horrifying decapitation videos, he was left no choice but to get militarily involved and also attack Islamic State targets inside Syria. But he also knows that he will be unable to remove the root causes of the dramatic rise of Islamic State during the remainder of his administration. “This will be a problem for the next president,” he said, ruefully adding, “and probably the one after that.”

Thus begins another war, the outcome of which no one can predict. The only certainty is it will be different than the strategists’ theories. It always is.

Put an end to the barbarism! No one disagrees with that, and at its core it’s an ethically correct decision. No one should criticize those who oppose Islamic State. At the same time, they must also realize that the price of opposition will be terribly high.

Obama knows that. He is forced to go to war against his will, and that’s his tragedy.