Letter: Don't send U.S. troops to fight

What short memories Americans have .

First, we offered strategic support of the mujahedeen in Afghanistan to defeat the Soviet Union and help usher in the downfall of the Soviet era. But then we abandoned Afghanistan, leaving a vacuum in which the Taliban grew and offered sanctuary to al-Qaida. We all know what followed.

Then came our folly after Sept. 11 into Iraq, a country with no ties to the catastrophic attacks of that day, disbanding the Iraqi army, sending its members to flee to Syria with their weapons. This created a void from which the Sunni-based Islamic State group arose, with former Iraqi generals as advisers and leaders. All of this was partly funded with Saudi money.

Now Saudi Arabia sits on its hands with all the Sunni Arab nations, crying for the United States and the Western world to save them from a quagmire of their own making.

The U.S., French and British air campaign is not defeating ISIS, and it won't. But any "boots on the ground" should be Arab boots. Their armies all receive U.S. funds, supplies and training. Many of the Arab nations' army officers were trained at the U.S. Army War College.

NATO should supply air power, intelligence and strategies through a Western-led command structure to eliminate this scourge. Only Arabs can solve this Arab problem. No more American boots on the ground; it only breeds more terrorists.

Bill Wall, Bayville