On Thursday, President Obama announced “today I authorized two operations in Iraq — targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel, and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death.”

The president decided to take military action against ISIL who have been moving closer to the Kurdish city of Erbil. The president continued to peruse a policy, “To stop the advance on Erbil, I’ve directed our military to take targeted strikes against ISIL terrorist convoys should they move toward the city. We intend to stay vigilant, and take action if these terrorist forces threaten our personnel or facilities anywhere in Iraq, including our consulate in Erbil and our embassy in Baghdad. We’re also providing urgent assistance to Iraqi government and Kurdish forces so they can more effectively wage the fight against ISIL.”

The other pressing issue facing the president in Iraq is the ongoing humanitarian disaster facing the Yezidi people who are trapped and surrounded on the Sinjar Mountain by ISIL.

On Friday, the President authorized and the Pentagon began military action in Iraq against ISIL in Iraq.

Senior administration officials commented that “you heard the President say, he authorized two operations in Iraq today. The first is the authorization to conduct airstrikes — targeted airstrikes to protect our personnel and facilities specifically in Erbil. What we’ve seen in recent days is further ISIL advances that were beginning to threaten the periphery of Erbil. Given our commitment to the security of our personnel and facilities, the President issued this authorization so that if we see further ISIL advances and actions that threaten Erbil, he has authorized the military to take targeted action.”

The question that needs to be asked what is the administrations long term strategy in Iraq? As the U.S. provides humanitarian relief to the Yezidi people, how will the U.S. end the encirclement of these people? Will we continue to provide humanitarian relief with the onset of winter? Will we attempt to roll back ISIL? Again, what is our strategy? How will we ensure the Iraqi government is more inclusive as the president wants?
A lot of unanswered questions![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]