Top government officials and military brass repeatedly warned of the consequences of sticking to a timetable on full Iraq War troop withdrawal, but President Obama proceeded with the plan in 2011 anyway.
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker cautioned against such a move in the years beforehand.
“I am certain that abandoning or drastically curtailing our efforts will bring failure,” he said in 2007. “An Iraq that falls into chaos or civil war will mean massive human suffering, well beyond what has already occurred within Iraq’s borders.”
He later told PBS that he and Gen. David Petraeus refused to talk about timetables during that time.
“To set an arbitrary timeline is just telling the enemy how long he has to wait,” he said.
Adm. Michael Mullen said the consequences of setting a timeline could be “very dangerous” in a 2008 Fox News Sunday interview, and retired Gen. Jack Keane said in 2011 that the Obama administration was “taking steps towards losing this peace” in Iraq with full withdrawal of troops.
“When we walk away at the end of conflicts, it has a tendency not to work,” Keane said.
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged in a CBS interview this month that he was not confident in the Obama administration’s plan to pull out at the time.
“I thought it was important for us to maintain a presence in Iraq,” Panetta said.
The consequences: the rise of the terrorist group ISIL and the full destabilization of the country in the years since. In January, these violent extremists overran Ramadi and Fallujah and have seized large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria.
More at the Washington Free Beacon
U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker stepped down in July 2012 probably because he knew he would not be safe in Kabul the way Obama was going.
Retired Adm. Michael Mullen, the target of a computer hacking, a situation that led to subsequent FBI investigations.
Forced to resign, Gen. David Petraeus, had an affair in 2011 which Eric holder knew about but did not inform Petraeus’s nominal superior, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper about it until November 6, 2012, more than a year later.
As was early retired Gen. Allen who came under investigation for possible “inappropriate-communication” again by the FBI.
Obama cleaned house of all these men.
He didn’t want to hear about their views on his ideological-based plans to telegraph our withdrawal to our enemies.
He wanted to plunge ahead and hope that his magical thinking would lead to a fantastically successful consequence.
It didn’t.
Magical thinking doesn’t work.
But at least Obama didn’t have to listen to people disagree with him…..until now.
It comes down to the his refusal to comprehend the danger and his refusal to do anything about it. His world view is colored by his ideology in which America is the cause of all problems. He does not believe his actions, or failure to act, has led to the ISIS debacle. It is easier, in his mind, to blame others.
While the NY Times is not my first choice to illustrate this point, this article is illuminating:
Meh. He lied. So, what, anything else new?