Strange bedfellows against ISIS

What the heck are we doing? So now the big bogeyman is ISIS. I've no doubt they are nasty fanatics doing bad things.

So who else is fighting against ISIS? One of the big supporters of Iraq's efforts is Iran. Yep, we are on the same side as Iran with this one. Remember when they were the religious fanatics? Now they are the bad guys, but only on alternative days or some such thing.

Then there's Assad. Syrian government forces are also fighting ISIS. So we are fighting with the guy we are also trying to topple. Some of the guys who we were supporting to overthrow Assad are now fighting with ISIS. How well is that Syrian spring thing working out for us?

Then there are the Kurds. They are the world's largest people without a country of their own -unless you want to count the semi-independence region in northern Iraq. They also have a lot of people living in Syria. Kurds have some skin in this game.

The Kurdish situation is complicated. The US has a long history of supporting them only to abandon them when it becomes politically inconvenient. Turkey has been dealing with a Kurdish insurgency for years. They could roll tanks into Syria and settle the ISIS thing with boots on the ground. However, they don't really want to support Kurds. The US is providing some support for the Kurds in Syria, but they are careful not to anger Turkey. US air basses are more important than some Kurdish village in Syria.

So the ISIS thing is a mess, and US policies created some of the conditions that allowed them to thrive.

Speaking of messes, post Gaddafi Libya is now a broken country with just the sort of chaos that breeds groups like ISIS. That not enough? How about Yemen? It's another former US ally falling apart at the seams.

Don't even get me started on Ukraine.

Anyone else think the US is squandering its treasure, lives, and even its moral standing? The recent track record isn't all that great. In fact, our record hasn't been all that great since WWII. We really were the good guys there. (as long as we ignore the war crime known as the bombing of Dresden)

-Sixbears