Steve Chapman: Another Bad War in Iraq

When President Barack Obama denounced the
jihadist group the Islamic State that beheaded American journalist
James Foley, he called for action “to extract this cancer so that
it does not spread.” The United States has been bombing its
positions in Iraq and may expand the attacks into Syria. This could
be the prelude to a bigger U.S. undertaking.

As least that’s what our leaders seem to be hinting at. Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel claimed the Islamic State is a threat “beyond
anything that we’ve seen.” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen.
Martin Dempsey called it an “apocalyptic” group that will “have to
be defeated.”

The hysteria confirms that the U.S. government can turn any
enemy into a rampaging Godzilla posing an imminent threat to our
survival. In reality, this one is a fringe insurgency with maybe
10,000 fighters who are stretched thin and outgunned by the Iraqi
military.

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