Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
It’s deja vu all over again for those of us who remember our first steps into the quagmire of Vietnam were taken by advisors. First we sent hundreds, then we sent hundreds of thousands. Almost 60,000 of the men we sent to meddle in a civil war we had no business fighting, among them some of my high school classmates, came home in body bags.
President Obama says he’s sending 300 advisors to Iraq to assess the situation. According to CNN, these officers and noncoms will hole up in rooms with thick walls to study maps. But after that you can bet your farm that these advisors will help designate targets for air and missile strikes against the blood crazed ISIS. Obama obviously thinks the politics of the situation require that he do something more than exhort the people of Iraq to solve their own problems, and to sacrifice the lives of their own sons, so he probably considers sending advisors a reasonable compromise. Well, that’s how it starts; one toe wetted to test the water, then before you know it you’re waist deep in the Big Muddy with bullets screaming your way. Senators Tester and Walsh are right to oppose sending advisors. Here’s Tom Paxton: