The first of probably many.

U.S. jet fighters hit artillery being used by the militant group called the Islamic State in northern Iraq on Friday, the first of what is expected to be a series of American strikes meant to halt the Sunni extremist advance on the Kurdish capital of Erbil, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. F/A-18 jet fighters dropped 500 pound laser-guided bombs on mobile-artillery positions outside Erbil, said Pentagon press secretary, Rear. Adm. John Kirby.

I don’t know why, but I was struck by the utter inanity of this particular Boing Boing article on the topic. I won’t subject you to the foul-mouthed* text**; suffice it to say that they almost seem surprised that we’re going back. I’m not sure why: even back in 2011 it was obvious that our abandonment of Iraq was going to come back to haunt us.  There’s not a single rational or knowledgeable person out there who couldn’t have predicted this, in other words.  The only question was how long it was going to be before American re-intervention would be necessary.

Turns out that the administration lost a bet with itself, it seems: apparently, ‘how long’ was ‘four years.’  I assume that the administration was hoping for at least six.  Well, nobody ever said that Barack Obama – or any member of his administration – was particularly good at predicting the future…

(Image via Shutterstock)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: The next step would be where we increase the numbers of ‘advisors’ that we send to Iraq.  We already have some there: we’re going to send more.

PPS: There are going to be a lot of people who are going to have to explain why they’re in the process of switching their opinions on intervening in Iraq to match the current ones of President Obama; or more accurately, they’re going to have to come up with a better-sounding reason than We have always been at war with Eurasia.  I wish them joy of the effort.

*Because I never swear, of course. Oh, no, not Ma Lane’s little boy. It’s Lemonade and Sunday School picnics for me, ya, you betcha.

**At that, the site’s doing better than its commenters: I know that it’s a little unfair, but I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting that there are a goodly number of BB readers who apparently want to reanimate Saddam Hussein and give him nerve gas to play with.