Editorials / Opinion

Columnist David Brooks begins by saying, “No U.S. president could allow a barbaric caliphate to establish itself in the middle of the Middle East” [“Obama, the reluctant leader,” Opinion, Sept. 13]. Why not? The Middle East is full of brutal regimes, many of them our allies.

Brooks ends by saying, “The Arab world can fully trust that Obama doesn’t have any permanent designs on their region.” Of course Obama and the U.S. have permanent designs on their region. We have been over there for decades, recently spent trillions of dollars there, and we will be there until the oil and whatever else we want is gone.

Brian Conkle, Seattle