President Obama Wasted American Victory and Lost Iraq: What Now?

NRO   "This is what happens when a president declares an end to a war that wasn’t truly over."
...
"What now? Obviously we cannot return in force on the ground. The American people simply would not abide it. But we’re not helpless and can at least take action to prevent total disaster. I suggest five steps:"
1. Provide air support if necessary to protect the Kurds, our most faithful Iraqi allies for more than a generation. If we allow the Kurds to be swallowed up in the fighting, we’ll send a disastrous message to all our close allies that we are utterly faithless — that indeed our friendship is deadly....
 
2. Condition any direct military support for the Maliki government on the removal of Iranian forces from the country. The United States Air Force must not become close air support for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, thereby using American air power to turn southern Iraq into a virtual Iranian province. There are reports of thousands of Shiite fighters rallying to defend Baghdad, and it’s possible that they’ll be able to at least stabilize the front. If they can’t — and if they’re Iraqi and not Iranian — we should consider American strikes to keep the capital from falling.
 
3. Defend our embassy.... Jihad thrives on victory, and the image of occupying the American embassy would lift the Sunni radicals far more than any victory thus far.
 
4. Demand an overhaul of the Obama national-security team. That team — including of course Susan Rice and the hapless secretary of defense — is completely out of its depth. ...We have to replace the political hacks with warriors, or the war will come home once again.
 
5. Educate the American people. This is perhaps the most difficult task. The American people have to understand that the violence sweeping the Middle East has direct implications for our own security. The jihadists fighting each other are doing so only as a prelude to taking on the real enemy — the United States. A “Fortress America” approach can keep out large groups of terrorists, but it doesn’t take large groups to wreak havoc. We have to demonstrate to our citizens that the Obama Doctrine of withdrawal and defeat is the pathway to genocide abroad and violence at home. It may be too late for Iraq, but it’s not too late for Afghanistan. Total withdrawal there will likely yield similar results.