Trump vs. Fiorina vs. Obama on Isis; Fiorina and the "Law of Bad Ideas"

Carly Fiorina Seeks No-Fly Zone

In the Fox interview show below, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says the US should enforce a no-fly zone in Syria, even if it means shooting down Russian aircraft.



Quote of the day: "Russian jets have been basically conducting dangerous and unpredictable maneuvers around our waters and our borders and our territory".

Can I have a definition of "our" territory please?

The closest I can find is U.S. to file complaint over 'unsafe' intercept by Russian fighter jet. That was an incident over the Baltic Sea, near Poland.

The other side of the story is Invading the Black Sea: Washington's belligerent military maneuvers in traditional Russian territory.

And what about NATO Conducts Military Maneuvers 300 Yards From Russia's Border?

So who's provoking whom?

But let's return to the main story. What right does the US have to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria?

Quite frankly this woman is a dangerous war-monger, at best. She is totally unfit to be president.

Obama Goes After Putin

The Financial Times reports Obama Attacks Putin Over Syrian Air Strikes.

Russia is being pulled into a “quagmire” in Syria and its military intervention is likely to boost the Islamist militants of Isis, a defiant President Barack Obama said on Friday after a week when his own approach to the Syrian conflict has faced intense scrutiny.

“An attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire, and it won’t work,” he said. “They will be there for a while if they don’t take a different course.”

Quagmire Irony

The irony of Obama's statement should stand out like a mile. The US is in a Mideast quagmire of its own making starting with Bush and continued by Obama.

Besides, why should we give a damn if Russia gets stuck in a Syrian quagmire? Does Russia give a hoot that the US is stuck in quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan? Is Obama that much of a caring person that he is concerned about 'Putinesque" quagmires?

Speaking at the White House, Obama also said that some of his domestic critics who were calling for a more direct American intervention in the Syrian civil war were peddling “half-baked solutions” and “mumbo-jumbo”.

It's difficult to say precisely who that paragraph is aimed at, but if it's Fiorina, then we can take some consolation in the fact that Obama's policies are at least to some degree, not as idiotic as hers.

Let Russia fight ISIS in Syria

On September 29, Donald Trump said ‘Let Russia fight ISIS’ in Syria.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said the United States should let Russia fight it out against the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria, saying Syrian President Bashar Assad looks better to him than the alternative.

‘Why are we knocking ISIS and yet at the same time we’re against Assad?’ Let them fight, take over the remnants. But more importantly, let Russia fight ISIS, if they want to fight ‘em … in Syria,” Mr. Trump said.

“Let Syria and ISIS fight. Why do we care?” he said.

“We have to get rid of ISIS, very importantly, but I look at Assad, and Assad to me looks better than the other side,” he said. “And you know, this has happened before. We back a certain side, and that side turns out to be a total catastrophe. Russia likes Assad, seemingly, a lot — let them worry about ISIS. Let them fight it out.”

Bingo!

I do not agree with all of Trump's statements on ISIS, but he hits the nail squarely on the head here.

The real problem is US policy.

We took out Saddam Husein, a secular ruler, and put in place a religious puppet who increased tensions between Shiites and Sunnis giving rise to religious warfare and the very creation of ISIS.

Make no mistake, ISIS is a US creation. And Both ISIS and Al Qaeda rebels seek to overthrow Assad.

Realistically, Russia wants to fight ISIS and we should either welcome that stance or be neutral to it. But Obama doesn't like the tack Russia has taken.

The US supports Al Qaeda rebels because the US wants to get rid of Syrian president Assad. Russia's way to fight ISIS is to take on Al Qaeda.

History Lesson

Please recall that one of the justifications the US used to topple Hussein was the lie Iraq harbored Al Qaeda. In reality, Al Qaeda did not exist in any extent in Iraq before we topped Hussein, but does now.

And the US is now aligned with Al Qaeda because we would rather get rid of Assad than fight ISIS, even though ISIS is a far bigger threat. That is how blatantly stupid US policy has become.

Law of Bad Ideas Revisited

The Law of Bad Ideas says that no matter how stupid an idea is, someone will propose something worse.

Specifically, Corollary Number Five to the Law of Bad Ideas states "No idea is so bad it cannot be made worse."

Sure enough, along comes Fiorina, willing to get into a military battle with Russia to support blatantly stupid US policies.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock