Only the U.S. Can Prevent a Humanitarian and Strategic Disaster in Iraq

At the Wall Street Journal, "The Jihadist March in Iraq":

Perhaps history will mark this as the week that President Obama recognized that evil unimpeded will devour everything before it. We say perhaps because with this President you never know.

President Obama said Thursday night he authorized limited air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to stop the Sunni jihadists from carrying out a genocide in northern Iraq. What he didn't do, but should, is make a larger U.S. military commitment against ISIS both to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and protect American security interests.

After routing Iraq's army from Mosul and most of northern Iraq in June, ISIS has grown as a military force. It captured significant war materiel, including armored U.S. Humvees, and has attracted hardened jihadist fighters from Syria and elsewhere. In addition to the sums it looted from Mosul's banks, the group has the potential to gain access to revenue from oil fields in northern Iraq.

ISIS is also threatening the obliteration of the Christian population in northern Iraq. An assault by ISIS's forces in northern Nineveh province has emptied towns of their Christian populations. Some 40,000 Yazidis, a minority who have lived in Iraq for millennia, are now isolated with little food or water on Mount Sinjar. ISIS controls all roads out and has proven it will have no compunction to slaughter those who try to flee.

When ISIS captured Mosul, it often painted an "N" on the houses of Christians, denoting they are of Nazareth, the birthplace of Jesus. The Christians' confiscated properties have been given to Muslims. Ancient Christian churches have been razed. The self-proclaimed "Islamic State" is a barbaric, pre-modern movement whose goal is to expand its dominion with mass killings. Unresisted, it will not stop.

Despite ISIS's obvious threat to the viability of Iraq—it now also threatens Kurdistan in the north—the Obama Administration to this point has done nothing significant for more than two months to help the Iraqis fight back. Instead, it has insisted that the Iraqis in Baghdad first depose Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and form a more "inclusionary" government.

Under current circumstances, this policy defines "beside the point." It has become a pretext for not acting, as if ISIS will pause while Baghdad organizes itself in a way that meets Mr. Obama's standards. It is past time for the U.S. to intervene...

More at that top link.