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After being blindsided by the crisis in Iraq, President Obama has directed his Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East and Europe, and is preparing to send 300 military advisers to aid the Iraqi military.

After meeting with his national security team the president has decided to hold back on the more aggressive action of air strikes to stem the tide of sectarian violence.

Military analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies commented on the president decision, “The President’s decision to send 300 more U.S. military advisors to Iraq is a key first step in dealing with the crisis. It ensures that the United States as well as Iran will have a presence on the ground, while any U.S. use of airpower alone would have effectively empowered Iran’s Revolutionary Guards because they would have been present with Iraqi forces.”

Cordesman continued, “It gives the United States the kind of direct contact with Iraqi forces that allows them to judge their strengths and weaknesses, and act as a check on sectarian abuses, as well as help funnel U.S. aid to the units that will use it against ISIL and other extremist forces, rather than encourage sectarian attacks and Civil war.”

On dealing with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Cordesman said, “It keeps up the right kind of pressure on Maliki and any successor, and still helps Iraq deal with an all too real threat of extremism. With the right kind of quiet dialogue, it will also assure Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE that the United States is not giving Maliki a blank check.”

Speaking in the White House briefing room, the president addressed the highly controversial area of Iranian by stating, “Our view is that Iran can play a constructive role if it is helping to send the same message to the Iraqi government that we’re sending, which is that Iraq only holds together if it’s inclusive and that if the interests of Sunni, Shia and Kurd are all respected.”

This may be a bit of wishful thinking on the president’s part as Iran as only its own interests in mind, and that does not include respecting the Kurds or the Sunni minority in Iraq.

Now opponents of the presidents namely Republicans have called for much stronger methods then has been proposed by the administration.  Unfortunately both Republicans and President Obama have never articulated a coherent strategy, for Iraq or the broader Middle East region.

The partisan debate on the situation is unbearable as both sides are rehashing the argument on how we got into Iraq, when both Republicans and Democrats voted for the war.  Now we have to deal with the situation, not what transpired in the past.

What is missing in the debate is a strategic concept for the region, not just Iraq.  The lack of a strategy in Syria and the Middle East was one of the reasons which led to the current situation now faced in Iraq.

One only has to remember the famous words of Chinese General Sun Tzu, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

Both Republicans, Democrats, and the president need to remember his wise counsel.