The U.S. is now bombing ISIS positions in Iraq.  Before we get heavily involved in a losing battle – no matter who wins, we lose – the U.S. should consider its options wisely.  We should not let emotional pleas overrule reason.

By all means, the USA should drop food, tents, medical supplies, and even some small arms for self-defense to the Christians and Yazidis in Northern Iraq.  Innocents should not be allowed to die.  Beyond that limited involvement, America should do nothing.

Why?

Because Shia Iran is terrified of Sunni ISIS.  Remember Iran?  The mullah-ridden state trying to build nuclear weapons?  The state that armed Hezb'allah, and that threatens to exterminate Israel?  The real menace to world peace, which has been forgotten during the Gaza fracas?

ISIS is a Sunni radical group that hates Shia Islam, and by extension, Iran.  ISIS has already destroyed sacred Shia sites in Iraq.  ISIS threatens to overrun Iraq, which is 80% Shia and friendly to Iran.

... ISIS surprised few when it vowed to destroy sites revered by the rival Shia sect. ... The destruction of at least 10 ancient Shia shrines in Iraq has enraged the Shia government in Baghdad, as well as the Iranian regime[.]

Shia Iran cannot afford to let ISIS go forward.  Iraq is a pipeline to Iran's ally, Bashar Assad, and to Hezb'allah in Lebanon.  Without ISIS, Iran could literally march to the border with Israel.  With ISIS, Iran is cut off.

ISIS gains also put in jeopardy Iran’s broader strategic alliances with Syria and Hezbollah by capturing territory through which Iran typically sends Hezbollah armaments.

Iran has already sent in troops to protect the Iraqi Shia regime from ISIS.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been deployed to Iraq, to help government troops defend the capital city of Baghdad from the escalating threat of ISIS insurgents, Iranian security sources have confirmed.

The economically strapped and isolated Iran is now having to waste money fighting ISIS.  Moreover, Iran is terrified that ISIS may link up with Iranian Sunnis in Iran's northwest areas, prompting a civil war in Iran.

Excellent!  There is absolutely no reason to make Iran's load easier.   

Iran has been fomenting trouble in the Mideast for three decades.  It spawned Hezb'allah in Lebanon in the 1980s.  It has been bolstering Syria's Ba'athist regime and is now even fighting to maintain it.  ISIS, for all its evil, threatens Iran's supply routes to Assad and Lebanon.  Any blow to Iran is a blow for civilization.  If that blow is delivered by Sunni radicals, so much the better, as it means two birds will be killed with one stone.

Iran is so terrified that it has quietly asked for U.S. aid.  Good!  The U.S. should do nothing to intervene.  Why should we save Iran?

Nor should we be too alarmed over ISIS's recent appearance in Lebanon.

The Islamic State, the Islamist group also known as ISIS that has taken over much of Syria and Iraq, seized the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal over the weekend[.]

Supposedly, ISIS units fled there after receiving a drubbing in Syria at the hands of Ba'athist/Hezb'allah units. 

Let Hezb'allah resist ISIS, and leave America out of it.  It is not our business.

Right now, [Hezbollah is] siding with the Lebanese government forces against ISIS in Arsal, though the army appears to be taking point in the actual fighting.

There is no reason to pull Hezb'allah's fat out of the fire.  Any weapon aimed at ISIS is a weapon not aimed at Israel.

Like an Old Testament rampaging scourge, ISIS also threatens Mecca.  Being severely iconoclastic, ISIS deems the Islamic Ka'aba shrine the idol-worship of a rock rather than god (Allah).  After getting rid of the Shia, ISIS may turn on fellow Sunnis.

When Muslims fall out, civilization prospers.

In an earlier article, "Let Them Kill Each Other," I said the U.S. government should do nothing in the present Mideast struggles.  I maintain that position.

If churches are destroyed, as awful as that may be, buildings can be rebuilt.  Our only moral obligation is to minimize the loss of innocent Christian lives during the struggle.  Our interference should be confined to humanitarian aid.  Dropping tents, water, and food supplies. Beyond that, do nothing. 

A general Sunni-Shia war, à la the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, would be the best possible outcome.  If the whole region plunges into war, then the present resurgence of Islamic extremism may burn itself out for the time being.  Root for whichever side is losing.

… the LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.

Do nothing! 

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who is not Jewish, Latin, or Arab.  He runs a website, http://latinarabia.com, where he discusses the subculture of Arabs in Latin America.  He wishes his Spanish were better.