Secretary of State Kerry is in the Middle East, looking for regional allies for President Obama’s proposal to deal with the threat of the Islamic State (IS). That is entirely appropriate -- IS poses a more immediate and dire threat to regional players than it does to the United States. Convincing Turkey and Qatar to stop funding and supporting jihadists, for example, would be an excellent start. However in Iraq, Kerry was seeking the “boots” President Obama insists will not be ours in the war to come. It was a sharp reminder of what we’ve already sunk into building the post-invasion Iraqi military that was supposed to secure the borders of their own country -- and failed ignominiously. And it is a warning about the President’s plans to arm and train Syrian rebels. Kerry called for a “do-over” -- a mulligan -- as he told reporters that the Iraqi army “will be reconstituted and trained and worked on in terms of a number of different...(Read Full Article)