Flint, at the bottom of that "commentary" you neglected to add this:
Max Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
See here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boot16jun16,0,782179.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
The CFR is a right wing neo-con think tank spewing out propaganda. He double dips and gets paid to write this stuff with a slant. The LA Times is so liberal they actually believe their readers should read about both sides of an issue and decide for themselves - imagine that.
His profile:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/boot/boot.php