In Hushed Voices, Europeans Are Whispering : "He has no plan "

The Associated Press reports there is only one shiite community in northern Iraq that has decided to stay and fight ISIS as they drive across the region, seizing vast swaths of territory and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. The Shiite Turkmens living in the town of Amirli have decided to stay and fight. They have dug trenches, placed armed watchers on roofs and have actually held off the ISIS unit trting to take their town of 15,000 and undoubtedly slaughter them. The Turkmens have held out for more than six weeks under siege they don't know how much longer they can hold out. Residents say militants with the Islamic State group first attacked the town in late June. When the townsmen fought them off, the militants retaliated by blowing up the main power station to the north, according to Ali al-Bayati, head of the Turkmen Saving Foundation, a local NGO. The insurgents also destroyed several water wells on the outskirts of town, he said. Earlier this week, the UN special representative for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, called for immediate action in Amirli "to prevent the possible massacre of its citizens." Iraqi shiite forces are trying to relieve the town by breaking the blockade with an incursion from the west. Their US-made Apache helicopters have targeted militant positions with airstrikes, but ground troops faced fierce resistance from the insurgents, who have also slowed their progress with booby-trapped homes and roadside bombs. Amirli is the last symbol of resistance for the shiites in Iraq," according to Michael Knights, an Iraq expert at the Washington Institute who made numerous visits to the town before the latest fighting began. "It is the last non-sunni community that is totally exposed to ISIS right now, and it is fully encircled." The Obama administration has already engaged to protect the Kurdish autonomous region and religious minorities elsewhere in northern Iraq and Obama is now weighing whether to begin an aid operation for Amirli, according to unnamed US defense officials. ~~~~~ The UN reports that as of today three million Syrian refugees will have registered in neighboring countries, but many remain trapped by the advance of Islamist militants or are having difficulty in reaching open border crossings, according to the UN. Syrians desperate to leave their war-engulfed homeland are forced to pay large bribes at armed checkpoints proliferating along Syria's borders, or to smugglers, the UN refugee agency said. The record figure is one million refugees more than a year ago, while a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria, meaning that "almost half of all Syrians have now been forced to abandon their homes and flee for their lives. The Syrian crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era, yet the world is failing to meet the needs of refugees and the countries hosting them," Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. There are 1.17 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, 830,000 in Tuekry and 613,000 in Jordan. ~~~~~ President Barack Obama's acknowledgement the US still lacks a strategy for defeating the growing extremist threat emanating from Syria is, in part, an admission that he has either not tried or has not been able to form an international coalition to engage in the Middle East. The US is faced with the need to root out the ISIS group that has seized large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, as a matter of American and European security and to protect people from inhumane conditions in Syria and Iraq. The President is meeting with his top advisers and consulting members of Congress to prepare US military options. At the same time, he is looking for allies around the world to help the US root out the ISIS group that has seized large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. They've beat back al-Assad forces in Syria while co-opting and then practically eliminating the original mainstream Syrian freedom fighters. They have clashed with al-Qaida's local affiliate, routed Iraq's army and pushed back Kurdish peshmerga fighters. American airstrikes in Iraq have recently caused some ISIS pause and backtracking. But US military leaders say the terrorists can't be crushed unless their sanctuaries in Syria are targeted. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the most complete condemnation comes from his own lips -- that as US President, Barack Obama has no strategy for Syria. His advisors are quick to add that he was referring to ISIS in Syria, but that there is an Obama Iraq strategy, although we have yet to be made privy to it. Perhaps airstrikes at targets of opportunity and urging Iraq to unite to save itself constitutes a strategy. Perhaps it is the Obama Middle East policy. Perhaps the President would add to that his continuing complaints that Congress is hampering him - how, he doesn't say - and that Americans are weary of war, notwithstanding that they disapprove of his anemic Iraq actions by a whopping 58%. But, America and the world are supposed to take comfort from the White House announcement that he is huddling with his advisors this weekend to try to figure out what to do in Syria. I cannot fully express my shock and fear at such antics coming from an American President. Words do not do justice to the gaping absence of prior planning, prepared white papers, doomsday analysis, or even the most ordinary common sense that comes from reading newspapers and watching TV news. In Europe, newscasters are whispering in hushed tones : "He has no plan." It begins to sound like Hans Christian Anderson's tale of pride and gullibility and the little boy who said : "But, the Emperor has no clothes."