Remember how long it took to get our shit together and organize the NATO air campaign against Libya? Or the hesitancy and confusion in coming up with a response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons?

A dispassionate look at the air war against the ISIS jihad in Iraq looks very different to me, especially since Congress is on recess and Washington is deserted for the dog days of summer. In spite of the fact that our declared assets in that part of the world are relatively minimal (one aircraft carrier), our attack on ISIS has been absolutely breathtaking and effective, turning the tide of battle and giving the Iraqis a second chance and saving the bulk of the refugees on the mountain and giving our allies the Kurds fresh encouragement and support. I believe this was originally conceived as a means of helping the Iraqis repel an Iranian invasion, but it was easily adapted to the needs of the ISIS invasion, and the collapse of the Iranian Army.

This has not been a hastily improvised military effort on our part. This looks like a Plan B that’s been in the works for a long time, and a lot of effort and thought has gone into putting it together. One carrier can deploy only a wing of combat aircraft (about 40 fighter-bombers) which spend most of their time on the hangar deck being serviced, and the additional planes (another few dozen) needed for recon, rescue, refueling, ECM, intelligence, C&C, and the rest of the airborne infrastructure necessary to conduct operations at the very limit of the range of your aircraft. Sustained operations at the scale we’ve been seeing are difficult, if not impossible. But they seem to be happening anyway.

There are other, hidden military assets that have been employed in this operation, and I’m sure others have provided extensive support, including overflight, basing, refueling, perhaps even combat strikes. I’m sure there is all kinds of activity going on the region, while everyone is whistling, staring off into the distance, and pretending to tie their shoelaces and lighting their Benson and Hedges. Not only our allies and neutrals in the area are helping us (while letting us take the blame), but I wouldn’t even be surprised if Russia, Syria, and even Iran weren’t backing us up with logistics, intelligence, or just by looking the other way. Isis threatens everybody, and just in case Iraq couldn’t handle them, a Plan B was already in place and being rehearsed.

So Obama, who has been desperately trying to disentangle himself from the Middle East, has now got himself another war, with coordinated air strikes, “no boots” troop movements, Hellfire drones, humanitarian air drops, diplomatic activity and who knows what else going on in the background. And in the meantime, Maliki has been deftly maneuvered out of the way. The Right hasn’t figured out yet how to respond to this, to cast it in a way that makes Obama look bad, and the Left is afraid to point out we are rapidly being dragged into another war, regardless of how much the public supposedly objects. The propaganda and PsyOps effort is definitely underway. The news is full of lurid tales of Christians getting massacred, newsmen getting executed, and babies dying of thirst on remote mountaintops. How convenient. While on hold for the time being, we have race riots in Missouri, Russians rampaging in the Ukraine, trouble in Gaza, and an immigration crisis on our own borders, while Congress is on recess.

No, I’m not critical of Obama in this matter, or cynical of his motives, although I can see why others may feel that way. I don’t think he has much choice, I think he’s handling it in the only way he can, and I’m happy to see its working out fairly well so far. I don’t see this as a conspiracy to take us back to war again, although it may very well wind up doing exactly that; the Jihadis need us there in order to justify their existence and they are doing everything they can to keep us from leaving. At any rate, the thought of all that ordnance raining down on those black-flagged Toyota pickup jockeys just tickles the hell out of me.