Via RCP, bear in mind that one of the can’t-miss ideas recently floated by a former Obama administration advisor is that gay marriage might defeat ISIS.

This is the sort of thing you say when you’re trying to break it to people that victory in the new war won’t come soon, and may not come ever. It’s the foreign policy equivalent of another of Obama’s favorite sayings, the old leftist bromide about being on “the wrong side of history”: The enemy’s backwardness is plain and our moral superiority is obvious, so ultimate triumph is assured even in the teeth of immediate defeat. All I could think of while watching this was those photos you see online sometimes of Afghanistan or Iran circa 1960, with all the women in blouses and skirts, and photos of the same two countries today, with women in head coverings or even full burqas. Better ideas don’t always win. Especially if they’re defended by weak leadership.

Know what really discredits ideologies? Unconditional surrender, occupying their capitals, wrecking their cities, defeating their armies. — John Schindler (@20committee) July 6, 2015

However superior our ideas might be, O’s strategy, like it or not, is to run out the clock until 2017 and leave it to the next poor schmuck to figure something out with ISIS.