The editorial, "Avoiding accidental war in Iraq," (June 12), seems to be saying that we should avoid war, although evil forces have declared war on all of humanity. The ISIS threat has been made to all people. They want to rule the world with their caliphate and that includes us too. They want to destroy democracies everywhere. What is it about their message that the president doesn't understand? 

In 1939 Adolf Hitler and his fascists set out on a similar road, to destroy democracies and the West did nothing. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin went, hat in hand, and bought "Peace in our Time." He told Hitler; please don't take any more territory. We all know how that turned out. Now we have this president sending Secretary of State John Kerry to Russia and asking Putin not to take any more territory. Can we bet the farm that Putin won't? 

This president, after two years, has not been able to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS. In 1941, when America was attacked, President Roosevelt had a plan, executed that plan and defeated the three aggressors in 3 years, 9 months. Of course, President Roosevelt couldn't play much golf then. 

Tony Petros

Norwich