Will the Real Hillary Clinton Please Stand Up, So We Can Vote Her Down

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has put a foreign policy gulf between herself and President Obama, whose popularity is rapidly deteriorating. Clinton gave an extensive interview to The Atlantic's national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg that was released last weekend. The interview was conducted before the President ordered targeted airstrikes and humanitarian deliveries in Iraq. In the interview, she was thorough in distancing herself from Obama's string of decisions concerning Syria and Iraq. She called his refusal to "build up a credible fighting force" in Syria to battle the al-Assad regime a "failure" that led to jihadists such as ISIS moving in : “The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad - there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle - the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes publicly responded to Mrs. Clinton's criticism of Barack Obama's foreign policy back in June, just as Hillary's book tour was starting up : "On the broad thrust of our foreign policy, she was fully on board," Rhodes told Politico. Goldberg also said that Obama has maintained for some time that the United States could have helped the rebel forces in Syria, telling him in an interview in February that doing so would not have stopped al Qaida-related groups like ISIS from taking control. But Clinton wrote in her memoir "Hard Choices" that she has long advocated helping the Syrian rebellion, a stance that her supporters say is supported by the downturn of recent events. Clinton, in the interview, did refer to Obama as "thoughtful" and someone with "intelligence," but she said his recently quoted foreign-policy doctrine of "don't do stupid stuff" does not work."Great nations need organizing principles, and 'Don’t do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle," she said. Clinton also tried to ease off on Obama, saying he may have bseen "trying to communicate to the American people that he's not going to do something crazy," but also voiced concerns that America's position in the world seems to be moving backwards. In addition, Clinton argued that there is a difference between posturing, which she said was how former President George W. Bush handled foreign policy and a government that focuses on withdrawal."You know, when you’re down on yourself, and when you are hunkering down and pulling back, you’re not going to make any better decisions than when you were aggressively, belligerently putting yourself forward," she told Goldberg. The US, she said, needs to develop an "over-arching" strategy to resist Islamist terrorism, comparing it to how the United States battled communism. "One of the reasons why I worry about what’s happening in the Middle East right now is because of the breakout capacity of jihadist groups that can affect Europe, can affect the United States," Clinton said. "Jihadist groups are governing territory. They will never stay there, though. They are driven to expand. Their raison d’etre is to be against the West - against the Crusaders, against the fill-in-the-blank - and we all fit into one of these categories. How do we try to contain that? I’m thinking a lot about containment, deterrence, and defeat." She admitted that the United States "supported really nasty guys" while fighting communism, but "we did have a kind of over-arching framework about what we were trying to do that did lead to the defeat of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism. That was our objective. We achieved it.” Clinton also stood her ground in defending Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the current Gaza conflict, even though her battles about West Bank policy with Netanyahu were notorious while she was in office. "I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to the rockets,Israel has a right to defend itself. The steps Hamas has taken to embed rockets and command-and-control facilities and tunnel entrances in civilian areas, this makes a response by Israel difficult." She said Israel, like the US, is careful to avoid civilians, but "mistakes are made." Ultimately, though, the blame for the conflict "rests with Hamas." Harking back to her Benghazi language, she said : "it is "impossible to know what happens in the fog of war," but "there's no doubt in my mind that Hamas initiated this conflict....So the ultimate responsibility has to rest on Hamas and the decisions it made.” Clinton also accused Hamas of "stage-managing" the conflict with Israel : "What you see is largely what Hamas invites and permits Western journalists to report on from Gaza. It’s the old PR problem that Israel has. Yes there are substantive, deep levels of antagonism or anti-Semitism towards Israel, because it’s a powerful state, a really effective military. And Hamas paints itself as the defender of the rights of the Palestinians to have their own state. So the PR battle is one that is historically tilted against Israel." She also defended Netanyahu's statements that the rise of Moslem fundamentalists in the Middle East means he can't withdraw troops from the West Bank. "If I were the prime minister of Israel, you’re damn right I would expect to have control over security," said Clinton. "Even if I’m dealing with [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas, who is 79 years old, and other members of Fatah, who are enjoying a better lifestyle and making money on all kinds of things, that does not protect Israel from the influx of Hamas or cross-border attacks from anywhere else. With Syria and Iraq, it is all one big threat." ~~~~~ That is a remarkable chunk of conservative foreign policy commentary, coming as it does from Barack Obama's Secretary of State, who was responsible for implementing his foreign policy. It is difficult to decide if Mrs. Clinton has been brainwashed, or if her desire to be elected President has caused her to make yet another about-face in her opinions, moving sharply to the right because that is where Americans are on foreogn policy. ~~~~~ Here are some earlier comments made by Hillary Clinton that reflect a Secretary of State in agreement with the leftist President she served. **As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said in January, 2011 : "But our assessment is that the Egyptian Government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people." ~~~ Mubarak was overthrown by the Egyptian people's Arab Spring two weeks later. She later called the Moslem Brotherhood's Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi "a great statesman and lover of peace" and the US sent him several billion dollars. **Mrs. Clinton, when asked in March 2011 on "Face the Nation" why the Obama administration was opting for a far softer approach towards Syria's al-Assad compared to Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, explained that Syria was led by a "reformer” : "Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer." ~~~ Al-Assad has since bombed and used chemicals on half the population of Syria because they want to be free of the Clinton-labeled reformer who is responsible for more than 100,000 Syrian deaths in a civil war he still refuses to halt. **Hillary Clinton had this to say in June 2012 just after the Obamacare Supreme Court decision : “I haven’t had a chance to read the decision. I literally just heard as we landed that the Supreme Court has upheld the healthcare law. Obviously I want to get into the details, but I’m very pleased. That’s how I hoped it would turn out. I think it’s a great moment to just think about what this will mean for the millions and millions of Americans who have already benefited from the Affordable Care Act and some many more who will continue to do so." **Hillary Clinton spoke at the ceremony when the remains of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans killed in the Benghazi attack arrived in America : "This has been a difficult week for the State Department and for our country. We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful Internet video that we had nothing to do with." Four months later, she blurted out to a congressional committee her callous comment about why the four were killed : "What difference does it make." ~~~~~ Dear readers, here are two more Hillary quotes to consider. **"I wonder if it’s possible to be a Republican and a Christian at the same time." **"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society." ~~~~~ If you want a real "Reagan conservative" as President, vote Republican. In the meantime, will the real Hillary Clinton please stand up, so America can vote her down.

Obama Ran from Iraq But He Couldn't Hide

US officials told the Washington Post that the United States has been making airdrops of supplies to Christian and Yazidi groups forced to flee to mountains in Iraq in fear of their lives and is striking ISIS units who threaten American interests and are on the match toward the Kurdish capital, Irdil. The US, probably in the form of CIA intervention, is directly supplying the Kurdish peshmerga military with arms. On Sunday, Iraq's human rights minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, told Reuters that militants had killed at least 500 members of Iraq's Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north. Al-Sudani said the ISIS sunni militants had also buried alive some of their victims, including women and children. Some 300 women were kidnapped as slaves, he added. "We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar and some who escaped death, and also crime scene images that show indisputably that the ISIS gangs have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar," al-Sudani told Reuters. Sinjar is the ancient home of the Yazidis, one of the towns captured by the Sunni militants who view the community as "devil worshipers." "Some of the victims, including women and children, were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar," al-Sudani said. The Iraq humanitarian crisis is growing, with the recent addition of 200,000 displaced refugees being added to an already displaced 1.5 million refugees caused by the ISIS invasion, whose militants have engaged in extermination, and ethnic and religious cleansing. ~~~~~ Dear Raaders, it was the great Joe Louis who said, "You can run, but you cannot hide." Barack Obama is learning that lesson the hard way in Iraq. And Iraqis and the entire Middle East are paying for Obama's belated education. Mr. Obama can blame George W. Bush and faulty military and civilian intelligence until doomsday. The fact is that if Obama had not holed up in the White House waiting for the world to do his job - to do America's job - as leader and last refuge of the entire world - there would not be Yazidis dying on a mountain in Iraq or 1.5 million Iraqis displaced by ISIS. If Obama had done his job -- if he had found a way to keep US troops in Iraq in 2011, if he had supported the Syrian rebels before they were taken over by ISIS, if he had stood up to al-Assad and his Iranian keepers, if he had maintained and strengthened his Middle East coalition instead of alienating Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Israel -- Iraq and Syria would not be in the current real danger of collapsing into the hands of the ISIS jihadist terrorists. Obama ran from his responsibilities as American President. We can only hope and demand now and at the ballot box in November that he step aside and stay holed up in the White House, thereby allowing Congress and the US military do the job he is incapable of doing.

Western Military Power Is a Necessary Force for Good

There is so much distressingly negative news around the world that two items that are more positive deserve attention today. ~~~~~ First, a top pro-Russia separatist leader on Saturday admitted that Ukrainian forces have surrounded Donetsk, the stronghold of Russian-backed rebels trying to break away from Ukraine and approach Russia. He called for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds : "We are ready for a ceasefire in order to avert the humanitarian catastrophe growing," Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, said in a statement posted on a rebel website, according to the Associated Press and AFP news agency. Igor Girkin, a senior commander of the pro-Russia militants, also acknowledged Saturday that Donetsk was surrounded and conceded that Ukrainian troops had gotten the upper hand in eastern Ukraine after four months of fighting. The appeal by Zakharchenko comes as Russia is urging that it be permitted to send a humanitarian convoy into Ukraine to parts of the besieged eastern regions, an offer that the Ukrainian government has labeled a ploy to cover a military invasion, while US Secretary of State John Kerry says that humanitarian efforts are being coordinated with Kiev. A Ukraine military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, told reporters Saturday that he could not confirm that a town near Donetsk is now in government hands, although the separatists say that Krasnyi Luch is under the control of Ukrainian forces. In Luhansk, which is in far eastern Ukraine about 20 miles from the Russian border, the city council said in a statement Saturday that its situation remains critical, with the city going without electricity, water, or most communications for a week. The report said only about 250,00 people remain in the city with a normal population of 425,000. With the Ukraine military consolidating its gains in eastern Ukraine, it appears that the separatists will be forced to sit down with the Ukraine government and work out a ceasefire and the terms of a permanent peace solution. ~~~~~ President Obama, who finally decided yesteday to help the beseiged Iraqi government, said today that the airstrikes he authorized in Iraq will continue for as long as necessary to protect both US personnel and religious minorities who are trapped on a mountain by ISIL militants in northern Iraq. Obama said : "I'm not going to give a particular timetable," for ending the airstrikes. He was standing on the White House lawn shortly before leaving for a summer vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He added, "We are going to maintain vigilance." Obama again called on Iraq to form a unified government that is able to coordiinate the effort to save Iraq from an ISIL takeover. Administration officials believe the Iraqis are best-suited to deal with the threat of ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant that is also called ISIS, over the long term. One Obama administration official told ABC News : "We're laying down a marker here that even though [ISIS] is not penetrating Erbil, just their presence on the periphery, and the potential threat they pose, could lead us to take action if the targets present themselves." US forces are conducting a difficult and dangerous humanitarian mission, with three US Air Force cargo jets escorted by two F-18 fighter jets dropping critical supplies to the Yazidi who are trapped in the Sinjar mountain area without food or water. The US is in a race to stop a catastrophe from befalling thousands of families who fled to the top of a mountain in Sinjar to avoid the ISIL threat to exterminate them unless they converted to the ISIL form of radical Islam. Senior administration officials said air drops and humanitarian aid will continue "as we see need," and the administration expects that need to continue. British airdrops are now also underway, being coordinated with the US. In addition, the Associated Press reported that US officials have confirmed that ISIL kidnapped and imprisoned several hundred Yazidi women so that they can be sold or married off to extremist fighters. The US military has also used airstrikes and drones to destroy armored artillery that ISIL had positioned to begin an assault on the Kurdish capital, Erdil, in northern Iraq. Some US military ammuniton and small arms and mortar already delivered to Baghdad have been diverted to the Kurdish Peshmerga army so that it can continue its battle against ISIL. More supplies are to follow. The Peshmerga took over the defense of northern Iraq after the collapse of the regular Iraqi army during the first days of the ISIL onslaught. ~~~~~ Dear readers, there is a lot to be said for strong Western military organizations. Yes, they are expensive. Yes, their extremely advanced technology makes them overpowering in a world that seems to prefer underdogs, no matter how vicious they are. Yes, they permit the West to maintain its control of the world in the face of complaints by those less democratic countries znd groups who would prefer to control the world themselves. But, when we consider the situation in Iraq, it is clear that US and NATO forces could defeat ISIL if they were allowed to do so. And if we consider Ukraine, we can see that even a modest but well-trained and equipped army with its role clearly defined can defeat separatists who would destroy the country, even when the separatists have help from Russia. And, beyond today's examples, we might add that the only well-trained and equipped professional army in the Middle East, the Israeli IDF, can defeat Hamas if world opinion would only permit it. So, the next time someone begins to complain about tbe costs of the US or any other Western military -- think Hamas, ISIL, al Qaida and pro-Russia Ukraine separatists -- and thank your lucky stars that these dedicated men and women are prepared to defend your God-given right to freedom and personal liberty.

Despite Obama's Iraq Decision, We Still Need a Strategy and Somebody's Boots on the Ground in Iraq

After years of resisting the pull of engaging the United States in more Middle East conflicts, President Barack Obama has reversed his position, returning the United States to military action in Iraq, the very country where he accused his predecessor of engaging in a "dumb war." Obama's action also again raises questions about whether his overriding desire to end the Iraq conflict made it impossible for him to make an objective assessment of the risks of fully withdrawing US troops, as well as his judgment about the threat posed by the Islamic extremists who have taken advantage of a vulnerable Iraq. President Obama insisted last night : "I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq," while also announcing that US military aircraft had already completed airdrops of humanitarian aid to Iraqi religious minorities, including Christians, under siege in a mountainous region in the north. The ancient Yazidi sect has been hounded by ISIL combatants to convert to the islamist form of Islam or be killed. The Yazidi fled to the hills, where they are trapped without food or water in temperatures above 40°C (100°F). American military have begun airdrops of food, water and essential medical supplies to them. Obama's expressed rationale for giving his authorization for military strikes in Iraq is to help Iraqi minorities being hounded to extermination by ISIL and to protect American forces serving in the northern city of Irbil - including some of the same forces the President deployed earlier this year to assess the situation on the ground and make recommendations about how the US can help. The Americans in Irbil are now only 25 miles away from ISIL jihadist fighters who are shelling the city. He argued yesterday that the US has a responsibility to take action to stop imminent massacres, echoing the rationale he used when the US joined the 2010 NATO bombing campaign in Libya. And today, the US military is also using airstrikes and drones to attack ISIL weapons and munitions caches and moving vrhicles. ~~~~~ Both liberal and conservative congressional and political interventionists have urged Obama to use his Libya logic to respond to Syria's civil war, in which more than 170,000 people have died, but so far, the President has resisted. But is was the rapidly disintegrating situation in Iraq that finally led Obama to act, bringing the US to the brink of renewed military action in Iraq. But, for Obama's many critics, the action may be too late, or at the least a last ditch effort to help Iraq save itself from an ISIL jihadist takeover. ~~~~~ Obama has long been publicly dismissive of the Islamic State (yet another name used by ISIL) group, which for some time was under the al-Qaida banner. In an interview with the New Yorker magazine last January, Obama said comparing the upstart group to the terror network established by Osama bin Laden was like comparing an amateur basketball team to an NBA squad, adding : "There is a distinction between a bin Laden and the capacity of al-Qaida to plan major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian. Even at the time, US intelligence and military were warning of the dangers posed by a strengthened ISIL, which had developed its military competence and financial resources during its participation in the bloody Syrian civil war. But Obama's January comments reflected his limited appetite for plunging back into Iraq or for starting a new military engagement in Syria, where he authorized an air assault last summer after a chemical weapons attack but never gave the order for a strike. Obama's critics compare that approach in Syria with his decision to totally withdraw from Iraq because Iraq's government refused to sign a security agreement providing US troops with immunity. White House opponents say the President should have pushed harder for a deal in order to avoid the type of situation now unfolding in Iraq. "We are already paying a very heavy price for our inaction, and if we do not change course, the costs of our inaction will only grow," Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said in a joint statement following Obama's remarks last night. For Obama, the threat of destroying his own legacy on Iraq comes at a time when his overall approval ratings have collapsed, as has the American public's opinion of his foreign policy. He has faced a barrage of questions about his ability to influence world events, from Russia's provocations in Ukraine to the latest round of clashes between Israel and Hamas. As an indication of his unwillingness to act decisively, Obama said that even if he did inject US airpower into Iraq, it would not solve that nation's myriad problems. He said the Iraqi government and people must solve its own problems and defest ISIL. ~~~~~ Here is the heart of the statement rekeased by Senators McCain and Graham last night, calling for a US strategic military plan and not just a humanitarian response in Iraq : "A policy of containment will not work against ISIS. It is inherently expansionist and must be stopped. The longer we wait to act, the worse this threat will become, as recent events clearly show. We need to get beyond a policy of half measures. The President needs to devise a comprehensive strategy to degrade ISIS. This should include the provision of military and other assistance to our Kurdish, Iraqi, and Syrian partners who are fighting ISIS. It should include US air strikes against ISIS leaders, forces, and positions both in Iraq and Syria. It should include support to Sunni Iraqis who seek to resist ISIS. And none of this should be contingent of forming a new government in Iraq." ~~~~~ Somebody's boots have to be on the ground in Iraq if it is to be saved from an ISIL takeover. The Iraqi army, seldom paid and without resolve to fight ISIL, seems to be the unlikely candidate for the immediate job. Most US military experts advocate the use of the Kurdish Peshmerga military - the only army thus far to repel and defeat ISIL units. This will require supplying them with modern weapons and equipment to replace their old gear. It must be done "yesterday." There is no time for the usual Obama hand-wringing exhaustive review of all possible contingencies. Now means now. And it likely will require American advisors to train Kurdish military in the use of the new US equipment. Down the road, a US air support mission in northern Syria may also be needed to continue the destruction of ISIL military capabilities. ~~~~~ But, dear readers, for Americans, the strategic political question is what can be done to control Obama and put some strategic and practical sense into his shotgun approach to dealing with the world. Leaving aside the domestic US mess Obama has created for the moment, most discussion centers around the November mid-term House and Senate elections. A united GOP Congress that can withhold funds and reject programs unless President Obama follows Congress' advice will help. But, America has never had to contend with a US President in such disarray. His use of "my fellow Americans" last night and his leaning on praise for the military as a PR tool to bolster himself was actually disheartening in its seeming cynicism. Whatever happens in November, and a GOP victory is very likely, America will hold its collective breath until November 2016 -- when the Obama catastrophe ends.