TODAY’S MESOP ANALYSIS – RELEVANT U. S. VOICES ABOUT AIR STRIKES – A NEW PROVIDE COMFORT ? (NEW YORK TIMES – JOHN PODHORETZ – THE NEW YORKER)

“Mr. Obama made a wise policy call, and showed proper caution, by keeping his commitment not to reintroduce American ground troops in Iraq, but humanitarian assistance for the imperiled civilians was necessary,” writes the editorial board of the New York Times.

“The United States could not stand by and watch these monsters cause 40,000 Yazidis to die of thirst up on that mountain—though it could, and did, watch as Mosul was made Christian-rein. Failure to act then was a sin of omission. Had there been no intervention now, that would have effectively been a sin of commission,” writes John Podhoretz for Commentary.

“This means that U.S. warplanes are likely to be engaged on at least two fronts: in the northwest, protecting the Yazidis and the U.S. military transport planes that will deliver the humanitarian assistance; and in the northeast, engaging the ISIS fighters between Mosul and Erbil,” writes John Cassidy for The New Yorker.