NAPOLITANO: When another Iraq war is pointless

As we watch the collapsing government in Baghdad, surrounded by a highly disciplined and serious force of Sunni-oriented fighters that has taken control of the most populous third of the country, we must, in John Adams’ words, resist the temptation to slay the world’s monsters. This time around, the monsters are the Sunnis — who ran the government of Iraq in the Saddam Hussein years and who are the ancient and persistent enemy of the Shia, who run the government today.

The political and military force that is aiming at Iraq’s capital calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Its fighting force consists of about 8,000 men, yet it has marched through Iraq quickly. Last week, as ISIS forces approached the capital, a half-million Iraqi civilians got out of their way and tens of thousands of Iraqi security forces dropped their American military gear and Iraqi military uniforms and fled. The Iraqi army — which the United States demolished 10 years ago — cannot defend the current Iraqi government, which is as corrupt, authoritarian, anti-democratic and untrustworthy as Saddam’s was, yet far less competent.

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