Allah:
Via Ace, something to keep in mind tonight while The One is doing his johnny-on-the-spot shtick about fighting jihadism in Iraq. “Lie” is my word, not Tim Arango’s, but read his comment and tell me what’s more likely. That the vast American intelligence community was “ignorant” of how bad things were in a country where we’d spent eight years developing assets? Or that the White House had every reason to know how dangerous Iraq was becoming but chose to suppress that information because the truth was problematic?
https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/509710650759593984
Is “ignorant” really the best word to describe willful blindness to a politically inconvenient truth? Obama got elected promising to bring the troops home; the only way he could do that without major domestic headaches was to claim that Iraq didn’t need them anymore. So he did, the truth notwithstanding. Imagine how many low-information voters will watch tonight’s speech and wonder where this bolt-from-the-blue known as ISIS came from. Last they heard, Iraq was doing just fine.
You guys know better, though. I’ve linked it more than once before but it’s worth re-reading Peter Beinart’s post from a few months ago about Obama’s history of malign neglect in Iraq. He had one Iraq goal as president — to get out, come what may, just as he promised voters he would do in 2008. And he did it, even though that meant denying Iraq a small but potent residual American force that could have held Maliki’s sectarian impulses in check (which in turn would have made Iraq’s Sunnis less inclined to turn to ISIS) and would have been well positioned to smash ISIS once it crossed the border from Syria. Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker has written about this at length. Quote:
Even the NYT evaluated the situation in Iraq IAW the knowledgeable people who post comments here at FA. There are no leaders in this administration as evidenced by their actions.
“Yes, the Iraq War was a disaster of historic proportions. Yes, seeing its architects return to prime time to smugly slam President Obama while taking no responsibility for their own, far greater, failures is infuriating.
But sooner or later, honest liberals will have to admit that Obama’s Iraq policy has been a disaster. Since the president took office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has grown ever more tyrannical and ever more sectarian, driving his country’s Sunnis toward revolt. Since Obama took office, Iraq watchers—including those within his own administration—have warned that unless the United States pushed hard for inclusive government, the country would slide back into civil war. Yet the White House has been so eager to put Iraq in America’s rearview mirror that, publicly at least, it has given Maliki an almost-free pass. Until now, when it may be too late.
Obama inherited an Iraq where better security had created an opportunity for better government. The Bush administration’s troop “surge” did not solve the country’s underlying divisions. But by retaking Sunni areas from insurgents, it gave Iraq’s politicians the chance to forge a government inclusive enough to keep the country together.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/obamas-disastrous-iraq-policy-an-autopsy/373225/?single_page=true
This, from the left leaning The Atlantic three months ago.
In arming the Free Syria Army, the Obama administration sent them 46 Toyota Hilux trucks.
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-04-01/one-toyota-pickup-truck-top-shopping-list-free-syrian-army-and-taliban
Guess who has those trucks now?
https://twitter.com/Inthepeninsula/status/502608405132222464/photo/1
We send people to jail for negligence.
200 rounds of golf
400 fundraisers
no time for this
I faulted Bush Sr. for his failure to capture or kill Sadam during the first Gulf War. Now I realize that he and his admin had the intelligence to realize that Sadam was better than nothing (which is what we have now in Iraq). I’m now convinced that most of the Middle East is populated by people and cultures that can not govern themselves via a Democracy or a Republic. These people, and their barbaric cultures, just isn’t civil enough for such a government.
At this point I just don’t know what the “answer” is to the M.E. problem (besides near total destruction as seen in Germany and Japan during WWII).
Meanwhile, GW Bush and 0Muslim (too a lessor degree) have made Iraq far worse than when Sadam was around. As such, I’d really like to drop both of these scum bag politicians off in the middle of Baghdad with nothing more than the clothes on their backs…
@retire05: No wonder there are Muslims who claim ISIS is an American construct!
Obama arms ISIS.
Obama hands out nice trucks to ISIS.
US arms sent to Syria and US vehicles stolen from Mosul form the bulk of the ISIS arsenal.
But Obama believes that the solution to the ISIS problem would be to throw even more arms at Syrian rebels, and even more vehicles to Iraq, doubling down on that problem.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/09/07/report-islamic-state-has-anti-tank-weapons-taken-from-syrian-rebels/
@FMB42:
You bring up a real problem.
Let me add something a lot of people overlook about Muslim countries being ”ungovernable.”
When Muslims are forced to leave one country (war, starvation, poverty) and live in another Muslim country they are never granted citizenship.
Nor are their children who are BORN inside that new homeland.
As such, well over 12 million Muslims live in a stateless class inside various Mideastern countries.
In some of these countries these ”refugees (2nd, 3rd, 4th generation born IN those countries) outnumber the legal citizens of the country where they reside!
But they have no rights, no privileges, no legal assistance!
These are the hopeless people ripe for recruitment into ISIS, al Qaeda, Taliban, etc.
Unless and until Muslim countries treat all their native-born populations equally whether or not they had ancestors born there before the 1920’s, this problem will continue.
@FMB42:
You have to understand that Islam, as a political entity (it is actually more political than religious) does not allow for democracy of any kind. It is a “religion” based on growing its numbers by conquest, or subjection, only. A few Muslim have spoken out on how Islam needs its own reformation, but they are considered apostates by the very Muslim interests who have the ear of our current administration.
Obama stated, quite clearly, that Iraq was “stable”. But his disinterest in that country has lead to where we are today. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know.
The British news papers have reported, repeatedly, how the Free Syrian Army is basically just as radical as Al Qaeda and how many in the FSA have deserted to join ISIS. I agreed with Obama when he refused to act to take out Assad, but he has gone behind our backs to arm the FSA, only to have all that equipment not only from Iraq, but also Syria, fall into the hands of ISIS. Frankly, Obama is no more trustworthy than Assad.
@retire05:
Are there any left? I remember a time when liberals were capable of independent thought and had standards. Now they just seem to be mindless sheep.
@Randy:
That is not true — you are making the fatal mistake of expecting them to be PRO American interest leaders — what you in fact have is Muslim and Black Nationalist leaders — the sooner more people realize that the better
@FMB42:
You need to watch “Lawrence of Arabia” again — especially the ending part where the Arabs are trying to set up a parliament — quite funny, pathetic, and very revealing.
Long past time to quit baby sitting these creeps!
@Nanny G:
Seems to tell us something – says I!
@retire05:
They are just following the commands in the Koran! — like sacraments they are!
, these being US forces; had they been there, ISIS would not have CROSSED the border.
@FMB42:
While the troops were in Iraq, it was a work in progress. The surge had quelled the insurgency and violence, but the government needed time to mature and discover self-governance. Remember, all they have known is dictatorship. When Obama pulled the troops out, the clock was punched and the job was over… though incomplete.
No one can assess that Bush left Iraq worse than it was under Hussein; it wasn’t. That only happened after Obama declared “we’re outta here; see ya, wouldn’t want to be ya”.
@Budvarakbar: I opposed Obama declaring we were going to take action if Assad used chemical weapons because none of it was our business. The UN’s business, but not ours, exclusively. I am perfectly happy for them to massacre each other until only two are left, as long as they keep it within their borders.
ISIS, on the other hand, wants money, power and territory from which to launch attacks upon us, the last great obstacle in their path.
Has anyone noticed Obama is actually using the word “terrorist’ lately? I guess the days of hiding your head in the sand are prematurely… over….
All I know is the Democrat party and liberals need to shut the hell up about ‘spreading democracy’ around world, especially – ESPECIALLY the ME.
So called ‘democracy’ is a smoke screen for more devious, and harmful liberal agendas driven by a false ideology, a false narrative…it’s all an illusion.
Sometimes ‘change’ has to come from within (a country) – sometimes things just cannot be ‘forced’. People have been fighting in the ME for thousands of years…that is their ideology.
Obama has managed to destroy every relationship others before him have worked so hard to build.
Like FMB42 said…’these are barbaric cultures’, barbaric tribes, and we cannot ‘make’ them change, nor can we ‘make’ them see the light. So let’s stop trying to put a round peg in a square hole.
Let’s be rid of ISIS/ISIL by ANY means possible ….and I mean any means…