[WASHINGTONTIMES] Secretary of State John F. Kerry effectively gave the green light Wednesday for Iran to use direct military force against the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
movement in Iraq, but said there are no plans for U.S. forces to coordinate with their Iranian counterparts in battling the hard boys.
Normally I wouldn't think of giving diplomatic advice to the secretary of state, but JFK and I are almost like old friends--we were in Danang at approximately the same time, even though I didn't trip over any dead kids going up Monkey Mountain; I probably just wasn't looking close enough. So I'd suggest that Iran's national interest and its ambitions as a regional power demand pounding IS to paste by air, land, and/or sea to be a good thing. The U.S. national interest categorizes Iran's govt with bygone enemies like Nazis and Fascisti and Ostrogoths and such. Therefore they should be left uncommented and uncourted as they pursue their own interests and we pursue ours. If we occasionally bounce each other's rubble that's fine, but they can do their own targeting and their own BDA. If there's an occasional Hezbully or IRGC general standing under our ordnance that's too bad and we should stay out of their way, too. If they decide to do nothing or they do it wrong they don't rate our advice. The enemy of my enemy doesn't necessarily deserve a place on our national Christmas card list.
"I think it's self-evident that if Iran is taking on ISIL in some particular place and it's confined to taking on ISIL and it has an impact, it's going to be -- the net effect is positive," Mr. Kerry told news hounds at meeting in Brussels of the U.S.-led coalition taking military action against the group in Syria and Iraq.
His comments came amid news reports that U.S. military officials believe Iran has conducted