Candidate Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State for Obama’s first term and who should know the realities cold, said she wants more info so top people can think and analyze and come up with a plan sometime in the undefined future. Candidate Martin O’Malley wants basically the same thing. Candidate Bernie Sanders thinks it is all related to climate change. (Pause for a moment to honor the nerve it must take to say something so ridiculous to a national audience.)

If that weren’t ridiculous enough, he also adheres to that noxious and naive argument that but for our invasion ten years ago, ISIS would not exist. This line of thinking smacks of blaming the victims—a argument vehemently protested in other contexts.

ISIS ideologies existed prior to 2003. We did not create them. ISIS’s predecessors exported terrorism then, too. They reign today because of our ill-advised, premature pull-out of the region. ISIS is not powerful because of our invasion but because of our exit.

But that is not the prevailing narrative now. Americans were already acting out of character before being berated for our actions and earnestly worrying if we had caused it all. We have little political will to fight absent another attack on us.