BACKWARD IN IRAQ – The government, which we more or less support, appears to be losing more ground to the Islamist rebels.  From Fox: 

Iraqi government forces have reportedly been forced to pull back from the northern city of Tikrit after an offensive to reclaim the city from Sunni Muslim militants was blunted by fierce fighting.

The BBC, citing eyewitnesses, reported Sunday that the Iraqi army had fallen back to the town of Dijla, approximately 15 miles to the south. The witnesses said that the government forces' drive to retake Tikrit had been hampered in part by the large number of improvised explosive devices laid on the approach to the city. The witnesses said that security forces continued to shell the city, though what damage those shells may have done is unclear.

Iraqi officials had claimed that troops had pushed into the heart of the city in what was the biggest attempt yet by the Baghdad government to reverse a series of defeats suffered earlier this month at the hands of the Al Qaeda-inspired Islamic State in Iraq and The Levant (ISIS). The militants have surged across Sunni-majority areas of the north and west, menacing the capital and bringing the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to the brink of collapse in the process.

Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein, was overrun by ISIS fighters on June 11 as part of an offensive that also swallowed up Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul.

COMMENT:  No one can guarantee it, but I'd imagine that if we'd had an American stabilization force in Iraq, at least some of this mess could have been prevented. 

The truly frightening news of the last few days is that ISIS has its eyes on neighboring Jordan, perhaps America's closest Arab ally, and an island of relative stability in the Arab world.  An ISIS thrust into Jordan would have to bring a sharp American reaction, if we want to have any influence left in the region.  Maybe Obama doesn't.

June 29,  2014