Alex Christy of the College Conservative has some thoughts on the Syria situation.

Syria and the Consequences of Unseriousness

It has been over a year now since the United States began the bombing campaign against ISIS.  Therefore, it must be asked: what has over 12 months of bombing gotten us?

The answer is as tragic as it is infuriating: not much.

In recent days, most of the Western world’s attention has been on the wave of people seeking to relocate from Syria to Europe.  Debate has occurred over whether this is a genuine refugee crisis or a refugee crisis in name only, and what do about the situation.  According to the United Nations, the ratio of refugees is almost exactly 50-50 male-female.  However, according to the same UN agency, people being relocated to the Mediterranean have a men-women-children ratio of 72-13-15.  Half of people who relocate to the Mediterranean are from Syria.  Such varying ratios intensify the question of how many fighters loyal to ISIS are masquerading as refugees in order to infiltrate Western countries.

Step one to end, or at least improve, the situation should be simple: actually attack ISIS.  You do not need to be a military expert to realize that 11 sorties per day is not going to defeat ISIS anytime soon.  US pilots have voiced frustration about the rules of engagement limiting their ability to strike ISIS positions.   It’s not as if there are too few potential targets: a Washington Free Beacon report states that 60 ISIS training camps have been untouched by the coalition.  So why aren’t we doing more?

Given Obama’s beliefs about the Iraq War and his withdrawal from that country in 2011, he appears to have made the political decision to try to appease both his anti-war voting bloc and “doing something” to avoid appearing like he did not care about the raping, executions, and pillaging conducted by ISIS.