| Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty August 8, 2014 We're Dropping Aid, and Maybe Some Bombs, If ISIS Gets Frisky We give President Obama a lot of deserved grief. But last night, facing a tough choice, he finally did something besides vote "present." President Obama said Thursday that he authorized "targeted airstrikes" if needed to protect U.S. personnel in Iraq, as well as airdrops of food and water to religious minorities in Iraq who are under siege from Islamic militants and trapped on a mountaintop. | | Don't Miss the Conservative Event of 2014! | | | | "Today, America is coming to help," Obama said. The administration has been weighing options for weeks, but the issue has come to a head with a mounting humanitarian crisis and unrelenting progress by Islamist extremists. The most immediate crisis involved the Yazidis, a small religious minority, who have fled their homes and are trapped on a mountaintop surrounded by Islamist militants and are facing dehydration and starvation. The U.S. military made an initial airdrop of meals and water to thousands of civilians threatened by militants on Thursday. The aircraft that made the drop safely exited the region after conducting a low-level flight and staying over the area for 15 minutes. Three U.S. cargo aircraft delivered 72 bundles of supplies, including food and water, the Pentagon said. The aircraft were escorted by two FA-18 fighter attack jets. The United States "cannot turn a blind eye" while innocent families face the prospect of "genocide," Obama said, justifying U.S. military action that could eventually include airstrikes. This is not "meddling" where we're not wanted. The situation is simple. The Iraqis and Turks have made their own limited airborne efforts to save those refugees, but nobody has the abilities we have. Either we do it, and save lives, or most of those lives don't get saved. We shouldn't fool ourselves into believing that ISIS would steer clear of attacking Americans. We know who these guys are. "This is about America's national security," said Ryan Crocker, who was ambassador to Iraq under Mr. Bush and to Afghanistan under Mr. Obama. "We don't understand real evil, organized evil, very well. This is evil incarnate. People like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," the ISIS leader, "have been in a fight for a decade. They are messianic in their vision, and they are not going to stop." But if not, then the question arises: How far is Mr. Obama willing to go? He said on Thursday that there is "no American military solution" to the Iraqi insurgency, pointing again to the need for a new politically inclusive government in Baghdad. What he might do if that fails he did not say. And while aides stressed this is a narrow mission, they acknowledged scenarios in which it could expand. Here's what we could be doing in the coming days: A senior administration official described the airstrike authorization as "narrow," but outlined a number of broad contingencies in which they could be launched, including a possible threat to U.S. personnel in Baghdad from possible breaches in a major dam Islamist forces seized Thursday that could flood the Iraqi capital. U.S. aircraft also are authorized to launch airstrikes if the military determines that Iraqi government and Kurdish forces are unable to break the siege that has stranded tens of thousands of civilians belonging to the minority Yazidi sect atop a barren mountain outside the northern town of Sinjar. "As we can provide air support to relieve that pressure, the president has given the military the authority to do so," the senior official said. He said that congressional leaders had been consulted, but that Obama had the legal authority as commander in chief to launch the strikes to protect U.S. personnel and national security interests. This summer we've seen one evil force after another acting with impunity -- ISIS crucifying people and committing religious cleansing and blowing up Christian shrines and churches, Russian separatists blowing airliners out of the sky, Taliban agents infiltrating the ranks of the Afghan army and killing our troops, Hamas launching rockets and hiding behind kids. It is heartening to see America finally punching back. Joni Ernst Protesters Resort to Catering, Free Parking Why do people join liberal protests? Apparently they pay better; here's a letter to the editor in the Des Moines Register: I was recently contacted by the Joni Ernst campaign asking me to come out and support her at the State Fair on Aug. 8. It was simply one Iowan asking another to come out in support, if they had the time. The anti-gun special interest group Mothers Demand Action is also making calls about seeing Joni Ernst on Aug. 8. They are offering to pay for parking, admission, food and giving you a free T-shirt to protest Joni Ernst. Yet the Democrats have the audacity to run attack ads about Joni Ernst's money from special interests groups. There will be two groups there to see Joni Ernst speak. Only one has been paid to be there. As they observe in The Godfather Part II: Michael Corleone: I saw a strange thing today. Some rebels were being arrested. One of them pulled the pin on a grenade. He took himself and the captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren't. Hyman Roth: What does that tell you? Michael Corleone: They could win. Everybody Have Fung Tonight There's some buzz in the NR offices about Rhode Island gubernatorial candidate Allan Fung -- child of immigrants, conservative reformer, first member of his family to graduate from college, first Chinese-American mayor of Cranston.
It's a late primary, September 9.
ADDENDA: A headline I never expected to see:
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