Time to retire war party's MacGuffin ISIS

Opponents of the US withdrawal from northeast Syria cite several reasons but none so silly as their claim our absence will allow Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to re-constitute itself, threatening our homeland. For the US war party, ISIS nothing more than a MacGuffin offered to maintain perpetual war. Movie buffs, especially fans of thriller director Alfred Hitchcock, know what a MacGuffin is: an object, device or event necessary to the plot and motivation of the characters but insignificant or irrelevant in itself. For Hitchcock it might be airplane engine plans (39 Steps), or uranium ore stored in vintage wine bottles (Notorious). Everyone knows the most famous MacGuffin in filmdom, the black bird in John Huston's Maltese Falcon. But neither Huston nor Hitchcock have come up with a better MacGuffin for America's endless real life drama of perpetual war than ISIS. This rag tag assortment of Sunni Islamic extremists, which had some success in acquiring land in those countries from their arch rival Shi'ite Muslim brethren, are the prime motivator which allows the war party to wage perpetual war all over the Middle East and Africa. Virtually every president, congressman, military guru, media talking head says we can't bring out our token forces in numerous countries and stop dropping tens of thousands of bombs annually because ISIS will grow and threaten our homeland. That is utter nonsense fed to a public that isn't listening and doesn't care, allowing perpetual war to rage on. 

Up in Celluloid Heaven Hitchcock might say: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I've created 57 MacGuffins for my 57 films, but none compares to the Mother of All MacGuffins....ISIS."