Maureen Dowd, "Back to Iraq": Enjoy Your Vacation, Mr. President!

"The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land."

- The Quran

Islam, of course, is a religion of peace and love. Surely you remember Obama's "New Beginning" speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009, during which he declared: "And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality."

So what if ISIL (alternatively ISIS) is crucifying prisoners in Syria and burying children alive in Iraq. After all, as Obama just explained to Thomas Friedman (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/opinion/president-obama-thomas-l-friedman-iraq-and-world-affairs.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0), these are merely "disaffected Sunnis" who are "detached from the global economy."

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Back to Iraq" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-back-to-iraq.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0), Maureen Dowd writes:

"Just when Americans thought they could stop trying to figure out the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, we’re in a new war in Iraq with some bad 'folks,' as the president might say, whose name we’re still fuzzy on.

We never know what we’re getting into over there, and this time we can’t even agree what to call the enemy. All we know is that a barbaric force is pillaging so swiftly and brutally across the Middle East that it seems like some mutated virus from a sci-fi film."

Dowd's conclusion:

"Caught in the Sunni backlash and the back draft of his predecessor’s misguided attempt to impose democracy, Obama is leery and proceeding cautiously. But what can he do? He has dispatched a few hundred advisers to Iraq to fix something that couldn’t be fixed with the hundreds of thousands of troops over a decade."

"Obama is leery and proceeding cautiously"? In fact, as just reported in an Associated Press article entitled "President Obama Arrives For Martha’s Vineyard Vacation And Heads Out To Golf" (http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/08/09/president-obama-due-to-arrive-soon-for-2-week-marthas-vineyard-vacation/) by Julie Pace:

"President Barack Obama wasted no time heading to the golf links after arriving on Martha’s Vineyard Saturday afternoon for a two-week summer vacation just as the U.S. is engaged in airstrikes against Islamic militant targets in Iraq.

. . . .

Joining Obama for a round of golf were former NFL player Ahmad Rashad, NBA player Ray Allen, and Cyrus Walker, the cousin of White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett."

Tens of thousands of Yazidis dying of thirst on Mount Sinjar? ISIL's forces approaching the Kurdish capital of Irbil? King Abdullah of Jordan being threatened with execution? Never mind, Mr. President! Enjoy your vacation!

Please also see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2014/08/thomas-friedman-obama-on-world-making.html