Readers React: Criticize Obama, but be specific about solutions

To the editor: Similar to most conservative critics of President Obama, Max Boot is specific on what he believes is wrong with insurgent containment policies put in place by the president and his military advisors, yet he offers no specifics on how to precisely or even generally achieve his insurgency containment vision. (“Obama prefers special ops to combat forces in the war on terrorism. It’s not working,” Opinion, Jan. 12)

He writes that the United States must give Syrian and Iraqi Sunni Muslims a goal worth fighting for so they’ll rise up against Islamic State, along with a comprehensive counterinsurgency plan that integrates political efforts, diplomacy, information warfare (such as multilingual leaflets? Facebook posts?), development aid and security assistance.

How to achieve all this and what it’ll cost is left to our imaginations, including how many soldiers Boot wants on the ground to carry it out.

Mark Davidson, Santa Ana

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