This is the way the multi-trillion dollar Global War on Terror (GWOT) ends: not with a bang, but with a bigger bang.<\/p>\n
The GWOT, since its conceptualization 13 years ago, in the aftermath of 9\/11, is the gift that keeps on giving. And no gift is bigger than a Transformer Al-Qaeda on steroids \u2013 bigger, brasher, and wealthier than anything Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri had ever dreamt of; the IS (Islamic State<\/a>, formerly known as ISIS) of Caliph Ibrahim, former Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.<\/p>\n US President Barack Obama, before deploying his golf holidays in Martha\u2019s Vineyard, casually dropped that bombing the Caliph\u2019s goons in Iraq will take months. One may interpret it as another layer of the Obama administration\u2019s self-avowed \u201cDon’t Do Stupid Stuff\u201d<\/em> foreign policy doctrine, not so subtly mocked by prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Shock and Awe in 2003 destroyed the whole of Baghdad\u2019s infrastructure in only a few hours.<\/p>\n Obama also confirmed the US was showering Iraq again with humanitarian bombing \u201cto protect American interests\u201d<\/em> (first and foremost) and, as an afterthought, \u201chuman rights in Iraq.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n One could not possibly expect Obama to declare the US would now bomb<\/a> \u201cour\u201d<\/em> allies the House of Saud, who have supported\/financed\/weaponized IS, in Syria and Iraq. The same erstwhile ISIS that thoroughly enjoyed the marvels of US military training in a secret base in Jordan.<\/p>\n Obama also could not possibly explain why the US always supported ISIS in Syria and now decides to bomb them in Iraq. Oh, the perils<\/a> of \u2018Don\u2019t Do Stupid Stuff\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n So a quick translation applies.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s bombing of the Caliph\u2019s goons has absolutely nothing to do with US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power\u2019s much beloved R2P (\u2018responsibility to protect\u2019<\/em>) doctrine \u2013 as in the responsibility to protect up to 150,000 Yazidis, not to mention Kurds and remaining Christians, from a \u2018potential\u2019<\/em> genocide carried out by the Caliph\u2019s goons.<\/p>\n The whole fighter jets + drones bombing exercise, lasting \u2018months\u2019<\/em>, has to do with the Benghazi syndrome.<\/p>\n The Caliph\u2019s goons were dead set on conquering Irbil – the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is led by the wily Massoud Barzani \u2013 a long-time US client\/vassal.<\/p>\n The US maintains a consulate in Irbil. Crammed with CIA types. Or, as the New York Times so lovingly puts it<\/a>, \u201cthousands of Americans.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Enter Benghazi. This is an electoral year. Obama is absolutely terrified of another Benghazi \u2013 which Republicans have been trying non-stop to blame on his administration\u2019s incompetence. The last thing Obama needs is the Caliph\u2019s goons killing \u2018diplomats\u2019<\/em> in Erbil.<\/p>\n That would certainly raise a tsunami of questions all over again about the shady CIA weapon-smuggling racket \u2013 as in arming Syrian \u2018rebels\u2019<\/em> with weapons from Libya – at the time Benghazi took place. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, of course, also knew about it all. But then, and especially now, no one should know that the CIA was weaponizing the bulk of the future Caliph\u2019s forces.<\/p>\n Regime change or bust <\/strong><\/p>\n Obama said this humanitarian bombing adventure could last \u201cmonths,\u201d<\/em> but in fact it could last only days.<\/p>\n The price is cheap: regime change. As in former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blocked from having a third term.<\/p>\n That explains why all hell broke loose in Baghdad, as Iraqi parliamentarians clearly saw which way the wind is blowing. Haider al-Abadi was chosen by new President Fuad Masoum, a Kurd, as the new prime minister \u2013 hours after Maliki positioned Special Forces in strategic sites in and around the Green Zone and may (or may not) have tried to stage a coup. Maliki maintains that Masoum violated the Iraqi constitution by not selecting him to form a new cabinet; after all, his State of Law bloc got the most votes in last April\u2019s parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n Obama, predictably, was delighted<\/a>. But whatever happens next, Maliki won\u2019t go down quietly \u2013 to say the least. Even as the predominant narrative among Sunnis, a substantial number of Kurds and even some Shiite political blocs is that Maliki antagonized Sunnis all-out; and that\u2019s what drove them to support the Caliph en masse (although now many are having second thoughts.)<\/p>\n As for the KRG and Barzani, in the Obama administration scheme of things, what matters is that they should not declare independence. As long as Barzani promises to Obama that Kurdistan stays inside Iraq, the KRG will get more bombs and drones and the \u2018humanitarian\u2019<\/em> operation will speed up. US Special Forces are already deployed all over the huge area where the Caliphate borders the KRG, in so-called desert forward operating positions. And the US for all practical purposes is now the Iraqi Air Force against the Caliph.<\/p>\n Watch \u2018the Hillarator\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n This Obama administration warped R2P \u2013 protection for Americans first, refugees second \u2013 will accomplish nothing for a key reason; no bombing \u2013 \u2018humanitarian\u2019<\/em> or otherwise – exterminates a political\/religious movement, even one as demented as IS. The Caliphate prospers, somewhat, and expands, because unlike that pathetic Free Syrian Army (FSA) it\u2019s winning territory, desert and urban, in both Syria and Iraq; an area bigger than Great Britain already, holding at least 6 million people.<\/p>\n As for the much-peddled Washington myth of \u2018good\u2019<\/em> and \u2018bad\u2019<\/em> jihadists, the Caliphate also exploded it. Virtually every jihadi Washington – and Riyadh \u2013 weaponized and trained in Jordan and in the Turkey-Syria border is now among the Caliph\u2019s goons, wallowing in cash raised from oil smuggling, hardcore blackmail and \u2018donations\u2019<\/em>, and weaponized to their teeth after looting four Iraqi divisions and a Syrian brigade.<\/p>\n As for the GWOT gift, it will keep on giving in a bigger and bigger bang because of the dream narrative now displayed for every aspiring multinational jihadi; we are now defending our Caliphate from the mighty Crusader Air Force, no less.<\/p>\n The US lost the war in Iraq, miserably, only nine days after the fall of Baghdad, in April 2003. No \u2018humanitarian\u2019<\/em> bombing will turn it into a victory. And no \u2018humanitarian\u2019<\/em> bombing will finish the Caliphate off.<\/p>\n As for prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton<\/a>, she\u2019s taking no prisoners. She insists the US should have bombed Syria in the first place; then there would be no Caliphate. But now she worries the Caliph will attack Europe and even the US (\u201cI\u2019m thinking a lot about containment, deterrence and defeat\u201d<\/em>).<\/p>\n Predictably positioning herself, Clinton could not but totally dismiss Obama\u2019s foreign policy doctrine, a.k.a. \u2018Don\u2019t do stupid stuff\u2019<\/em>: \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t do stupid stuff\u2019 is not an organizing principle.\u201d<\/em> So the world will have to wait until 2017, when she\u2019s finally able to implement her own doctrine\/organizing principle: \u201cWe came, we saw, he died.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n ____________________________<\/p>\n Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is the roving correspondent for Asia Times\/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the author of <\/em><\/em>Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War<\/a> (Nimble Books, 2007), <\/em>Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge<\/a> (Nimble Books, 2007), and <\/em>Obama does Globalistan<\/a> (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.<\/em><\/p>\n