Shrinking Violets

President Obama has finally shown a bit of a backbone in his "limited" air strikes against ISIS artillery pieces and mortar positions in Northern Iraq. I say a "bit of backbone" for he still believes that he is reflecting America's reluctance to engage in any significant show of air power after Libya has blown up in his face. 

Not only is Obama still a shrinking violet but he resides in a field of such flowers. No country in Western Europe ... save Great Britain ... has shown the slightest inclination to deal with the spread of ISIS and its brutality. This group of about 10,000 jihadists just killed at least 500 Yazidis ... many buried alive ... see: Huffington Post Story (Huffington Post editors ... I think you are playing into ISIS’s barbarous hands by calling them the "Islamic State") ... and the world yawns.

And this field of posies is not limited to Western Europe. Where is Saudi Arabia? (Oops, I forgot, Saudi Arabia, like ISIS, is Sunni also.) Where is Iran? (Oops, I forgot, Iran, even though Shi’ite, does not mind seeing mass executions … particularly in Iraq.) Why is Catholic Latin America not rising in humanitarian outrage to save other Christians from being crucified? (Oops, I forgot, they’re all on trains to the Texas border.) The African nations, Eastern Europe, Egypt, Israel. Jordan and Lebanon have their own problems. But what about Russia (here I’m a little surprised at Putin’s wallfloweredness.) And the rest of the world is apparently not paying attention.

So President Obama must feel vindicated to lead from behind once again. “If the rest of the world wants me to fix this mess again, I’ll not be dragged into another war by you folks. I’ll make like I’m appalled and do a few token things, but the American people (me) don’t want any more involvement in this Mideast swamp. I think I’ll just take a couple of weeks off in Martha’s Vineyard, I’ll play some golf, I’ll eat some ice cream, and see if things aren’t better when I (lots of first person references here) get back.”

“I'll keep talking about not puttin' boots on the ground [in my opinion an over-used red herring] and then maybe I’ll pick some violets …”