I Got Dem Old Pottery Barn Blues Again, Mama

It turns out, not exactly four years after we declared we were out of Iraq, circumstances have kept pulling us back. Obama is now looking at the possibility of adding new troops (in a training and assistance role, whatever that means) and bases to Iraq to deal with the threat of ISIS.

For the record, I think ISIS is like a very bad infection that needs the strongest anti-bacterial measures against them. But I also think they are their own worst enemy--they are indiscriminant is picking battles and have pissed off people from KSA to Iran and have gone so far as to behead Taliban. (I would have thought they were Wahhabist absolutist peas in a pod, but no! ISIS doesn't get the enemy of my enemy kind of thinking. You are either ride or die--in other words, ISIS is just the worst. )

This brings up a late-stage questioning of the idea of the Pottery Barn Doctrine, as well ruminated about here.  Iraq appears to be broken, and the reason is very much involved with our various "helps" in the region. But to what degree and for how long do we take ownership of Iraq's failure?

I'm not saying I know.