I wonder if at least some conservatives and liberals are in agreement that further American military intervention in Iraq to help the government there to deal with the ISIS crisis would be undesirable. I don't know what side I am on in regard to this issue. I certainly don't support ISIS. On the other hand, I did not favor the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. in the first place. But the U.S. did invade and one result of that action is a weak, fairly unstable central Iraqi government.
Whether the initial invasion was a mistake is an issue for historians to discuss and argue. Before ISIS, I tended to agree that, regardless of whether the action was justified or not, the end result left the Iraqi people better off than they were before the invasion. I now definitely disagree with that view. As bad as Saddam Hussein was, he would not have stranded thousands on mountain tops without food or water because they refused to convert to Islam. Had they tried to defy his authority, he may have killed them outright. But he would not have starved them to death.
If Hussein were still in power, there would not be the present level of sectarian violence and ISIS, nor El Queda, nor the Taliban would have been able to gain a single foothold in Iraq. If Hussein had not been removed from power, the Iraqi people would not being persecuted by ISIS. That makes the United States at least partially responsible for the barbaric threat the Iraqis are experiencing. It's not a pleasant thought, but, if the U.S. had not removed Saddam Hussein from power, ISIS would not be in Iraq.
So I don't have any patience for those who criticize the President for sending Special Forces troops into a combat zone on a humanitarian mission. If it weren't for our country, the humanitarian mission would not be necessary!
One thing Americans can learn from Iraq is that exporting democracy is not something at which we excel. The most pathetic outcome will be that if ISIS takes over, the United States and other countries will probably eventually accept it as legitimate, just like they accept the bizarre idea that Tibet is a legitimate part of China, even though China took it by force. I guess right and wrong are not pragmatic concepts in world politics.