http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/...
http://www.bbc.com/...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.newyorker.com/...
The USA should hit ISIS hard, now. It shouldn't wait for American troops in Irbil to be threatened.
Literal genocide is on the horizon according to ISIS' own statements, and horrific crimes supported and defended by no nation state on Earth have already taken place and ISIS has not denied them, but instead bragged about them through video evidence and proclamations. This is not "Saddam gassed his own people". This is "we, ISIS, proclaim we are going to kill a lot of people unless..."
Every country on Earth is aghast at the actions of ISIS, at this point. The United States is in a position many of those countries are not in -- for reasons of military strength and history (as terrible as that history is) -- to act militarily in Iraq's territory.
This is a chance to act, in a real and justifiable way, on the side of righteousness and democracy, and in a case where the world could be brought together instead of divided by American military action. This is one of the rare instances where pacifism fails because pacifism has no role in the goals of ISIS and there isn't a realpolitik conflict resolvable through shared interests of nation-states, only unchecked and open-faced horror.
I hope President Obama immediately reconsiders his tepid red line of an attack on Irbil, and uses our military to target and destroy ISIS before they fulfill their stated goal in Iraq, or are dispersed to fulfill those goals elsewhere. I hope he brings other countries of a diverse and potentially non-allied nature on board with any military action.
This isn't Iraq War III. This would be preventing another history-haunting instance of the United States not doing something the world actually wanted it to do. It would be a missed opportunity to save innocent lives and unify the world, if briefly.