Obama Is Dismantling America, her Military, and the Middle East

Republicans have slammed President Obama over the swiftly collapsing Iraqi government of the shiite prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. The GOP charges that Obama's decision to withdraw troops in late 2011 enabled violent islamist jihadist militants to seize cities in a move to establish their own state in Iraq and Syria. "It was something that was avoidable," Senator Jim Inhofe told Newsmax. Inhofe was one of several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to blast Obama for the insurgence of Sunni fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), which defeated government forces in Mosul and Tikrit and is now 60 miles noFurther, ISIS "are rrth of Baghdad, continuing to drive off the Iraqi army by telling them that if they lay down their arms and equipment they can go home. Inhofe referenced letters Republicans sent to Obama in 2009, 2010, and last year : "It was something that we warned the President about over a three-year period. Now, it's worse than it was before. It's very depressing. One of the most dangerous battlegrounds during the Iraq war was Fallujah. To lose that, after they [American troops] spent their blood to gain it - this is an America that I have never known before." Senator John McCain, also a Committee member, told Politico that Obama has to make changes in his foreign policy team : "The first thing is to get rid of this national security team, which has been a total failure. It’s a colossal failure of American security policy." Committee member Senator Lindsey Graham warned that the US needs to evacuate all US embassy staff in Iraq to avoid a repeat of the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, including two former Navy SEALS. "We’ve got another Benghazi in the making here," Senator Graham told Politico after a classified Committee briefing by the White House. "What I heard in there scared the hell out of me." House Speaker John Boehner charged that Obama was caught "taking a nap" on Iraq despite Republican warnings, particularly in the last year : "It’s not like we haven’t seen this problem coming for over a year. And it’s not like we haven’t seen, over the last five or six months, these terrorists moving in and taking control of western Iraq. Now, they’ve taken control of Mosul. They’re 100 miles from Baghdad. And what’s the President doing? Taking a nap." Since Tuesday, ISIL militants have seized Mosul and Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, and other towns and cities north of Baghdad. The Iraqi army evaporated, abandoning bases and weapons provided by the US. Security sources say Sunni militants now control parts of the town of Udhaim, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, after most Iraqi troops left their positions. ~~~~~ President Obama announced in October 2011 that all US troops would leave Iraq. He said on Thursday that the administration would need to help Baghdad control the escalating violence but was not specific, saying : "We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria for that matter." In the past year, Al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders have repeatedly asked President Obama for additional support because of the rising jihadist violence, but the administration has taken no action. Iraqi leaders made a fresh request earlier this week, asking for a mix of drones and manned aircraft that could be used for both surveillance and active missions. Officials said Obama was considering those requests and was expected to talk to world leaders before deciding on a course of action within a few days. The Iraqi insurgency has been fueled in part by the civil war in neighboring Syria. Northern Iraq has become a passage for insurgents who routinely travel between the two countries and are spreading the Syrian war's violence into Iraq. The other problem in Iraq relates to the sunni tribes that feel al-Maliki's shiite government is deliberately mistreating them to the point that the tribes, which do not like ISIL or its intentions for Iraq, have joined ISIL militants in trying to drive al-Maliki out of power. The Obama administration, as in Syria, worries that lethal aid to Iraq could fall into the hands of militants or be otherwise misused. State Department spokesperson Jan Psaki said the US is sending about $12 million in humanitarian aid to help nearly a million Iraqis who have been forced from their homes by recent fighting. ~~~~~ The anger among moderate and conservative Congress members over Obama's handling of the Iraq problem is palpable. While there have been no calls for putting American ground troops back in Iraq, Obama's advisors make it clear the President will not even consider this option. Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said the President has no desire to plunge the US back into a conflict there : "We need to come up with solutions that can enable the Iraqis to manage their internal security and their internal politics." Even after American troops left Iraq, the US has continued to send weapons and ammunition - although not nearly as much as Baghdad has requested. A US training mission for Iraqi counterterror forces dwindled to almost nothing earlier this year, and Baghdad asked as early as last summer for armed US drones to track and strike terrorist hideouts. One of the sore points for many in Congress is Fallujah. In 2004, two battles were fought there. The second one, in November, was the bloodiest. Coalition forces won the 46-day battle, but 95 US soldiers died along with about 1,350 insurgents. The city, west of Baghdad, was destroyed in the fighting. ISIL took Fallujah as one of the first prizes in its current battle for Iraq. The current escalating Iraqi violence led 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to cite Baghdad as yet another example of President Obama's inept foreign policy : "His foreign policy is what has led to these foreign crises all over the world. Trying to recapture the lead and keeping these things from happening is going to be a real challenge. This is the result of the President’s missteps over the last several years." Several Democrats also called for a strong White House response to the crisis. Democrat Senator Tim Kaine told MSNBC : "The way we ought to do this here in Washington is that the President should put a plan on the table and make a suggestion to Congress about what we should do. The administration has not provided any plan or a suggestion, although they are deeply and constantly engaged now within the United States and with allies to determine what that should be." Graham said US airstrikes were critical : "There is no scenario where we can stop the bleeding in Iraq without American air power. If American airpower is not interjected into the equation, I don’t see how you stop these people." But Inhofe told Newsmax that Obama has so depleted the nation's military since taking office that the US probably could not help Iraq on that front. According to Inhofe : "Part of our strength is airpower. We don’t have that anymore. We have a lot of problems right now in terms of our ability just to defend America, leave alone to take care of our allies and the freedom fighters around the world. Obama is the commander in chief, [but] He does not have the best interest of America in his actions." The Iraqi turmoil led Senator Kelly Ayotte to question the wisdom of Obama's plans to remove all US troops from Afghanistan by 2016. "The President’s announcement exactly when we’re going to withdraw from Afghanistan - instead of making it based on conditions on the ground - to tell the Taliban, is a mistake," the Republican, who also sits on the Armed Services Committee, told Politico : "I would hope that the President would take some of the lessons that we’re seeing happening in Iraq and not repeat them in Afghanistan." Many Republican lawmakers placed some of the blame for the escalating violence in Iraq on Obama's reluctance to re-engage in a conflict he has long opposed. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is impossible to defend President Obama's abandonment of the Middle East. But, if Obama has allowed his dislike of President Bush and his policies dictate his own policies and actions in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, then we have hit a new low in presidential decision-making. We have also come to an impasse that no amount of White House analysis can paper over. Whatever President Obama's reasoning, he has become a danger that America and the world cannot afford. And, if Ukraine is the precursor, Europe should mot expect real help from Obama if ISIL or al-Qaida arrive on its doorstep. Barack Obama has disgraced America. He has trashed her reputation as an ally to be depended upon. He has allowed the Middle East to disintegrate into a killing field for extremist jihadist militants. Will there be anything left for a new President can salvage in 2016? Not if Obama continues his dismantling of America and her military.