You Go To War With You Army You've Got

... and in our case, it's the Iranian Army in Iraq and ISIS allies in Yemen.

That's the whole problem with not having boots on the ground. You don't get a say in what happens on the ground unless it's blowing things up. You can't capture, hold and pacify territory with an F-16. Consequently, in Iraq, we're providing air support for whoever is willing to take on ISIS. That turns out to be Iran. If it turns out that we don't like the results once the whole thing is over and Iran has annexed all or most of Iraq, what do we do then?

Be all that you can be in the (Iranian) Army!

Update: I might have been too harsh. The structure of our alliances is actually quite sensible.

Finally, a simple chart of friends and foes in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/8tQVpOeVwj

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 26, 2015