Photo Credit: WhiteHouse.Gov screen capture
U.S. President Barack Obama

In a startling turnaround – or one might characterize it as a pirouette in ultra-slow-motion – U.S. President Barack Obama authorized the deployment of dozens of Special Operations Forces to Syria. Also announced on Friday, Oct. 30, the U.S. is seriously considering sending Special Operations Forces to Iraq, to assist others fighting on the front lines against ISIS.

And so, this U.S. President who repeatedly swore that this country will not become involved in another military conflict in the Middle East, may be sending U.S. forces to fight in that region.

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Try as they might, even the most ardent anti-Israel agitators in the U.S. and elsewhere will have a hard time blaming this military expenditure – in terms of financial outlay and personnel – on Israel.

The failure to recognize ISIS as a serious threat, President Obama disdainfully referred to that barbaric terrorist organization as a junior varsity team in January of 2014, and the endless dithering about how and whether to respond to the civil war in Syria, is why the U.S. now finds itself unable to act other than by sending in American troops.

As Secretary of State John Kerry explained earlier this week, ISIS (he now calls it Daesh) arose out of the chaos which ensued at the onset of the Syrian civil war.

The U.S. had focused its energy on an expensive “train and equip” $500 million strategy to shore up moderate rebels fighting against ISIS. The plug was pulled on that effort this month, after equipment and trained Syrians ended up either fighting with Assad or with ISIS or other terrorist groups.

The latest U.S. response comes late in the game, well after Iran and Russia have spent years and months, respectively, propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom the U.S. is committed to sidelining.

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week Gen. Joseph Dunford, Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged, “no one is satisfied with our progress to date.”

It may be unfair to refer to a U.S. President in the second term of his presidency as “junior varsity,” but on May, 28, 2014 Obama made a speech at West Point that, in hindsight, might lead one to characterize his military thinking in those terms.

He said then that a,”strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is naïve and unsustainable.”

It was during that speech that Obama announced he would ask Congress for money to train the armies of “vulnerable” nations to carry out operations against extremists.

But now the U.S. is tentatively committed to sending in special forces units into both Syria and Iraq. As it turns out, the previous position of the U.S. was naive and unsustainable.

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Lori Lowenthal Marcus is a contributor to the JewishPress.com. A graduate of Harvard Law School, she previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools. You can reach her by email: [email protected]