We'll focus on one section.
President Barack Obama: Well, I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria. Essentially, what happened with ISIL was that you had al Qaeda in Iraq, which was a vicious group, but our Marines were able to quash with the help of Sunni tribes. They went back underground. But over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swathes of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos, and attract foreign fighters who believed in their jihadist nonsense, and traveled everywhere from Europe to the United States to Australia to other parts of the Muslim world, converging on Syria. And so this became ground zero for jihadists around the world. And they have been very savvy in terms of their social media. In some cases, you have old remnants of Saddam Hussein's military that had been expunged from the Iraqi military, which gave them some traditional military capacity, and not just terrorist capacity. And this is one of the challenges that we are going to have generally, is where you have got states that are failing or in the midst of civil war, these kinds of organizations thrive. That is why it's so important for us to recognize part of our solution here is going to be military. We just have to push them back and shrink their space and go after their command-and-control and their capacity and their weapons and their fueling, and cut off their financing, and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters. But what we also have to do is, we have to come up with political solutions in Iraq and Syria in particular, but in the Middle East generally, that arrives at an accommodation between Sunni and Shia populations that right now are the biggest cause of conflict, not just in the Middle East, but in the world.
Let's go through and respond.
Well, I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria.
No.
You don't get to appoint James Clapper, you don't get to keep him in the post after he lies to Congress -- lies to Congress and gets away with it, and then claim that "they underestimated."
You are up James Clapper's ass. You don't get to say "they."
You underestimated.
What a little runt.
The buck stops where?
Never with Barack.
Essentially, what happened with ISIL was that you had al Qaeda in Iraq, which was a vicious group, but our Marines were able to quash with the help of Sunni tribes. They went back underground.
How stupid is he?
Because he's stupid or he's lying.
The Marines did nothing to quash Sunni fighters -- some of which were part of al Qaeda in Mesopoatmia -- a homegrown group which sprung up in Iraq in response to the Iraq War.
Then-Gen David Patreaus came up with the "Awakening" movement and as he explained to Congress in April 2008, they were paying Sunni (and some Shi'ites) so that they would stop attacking US military equipment and US service members.
If you don't like that order, take it up with Petraeus who put the emphasis first and foremost on equipment -- check his testimony.
I don't have to, I was there. You'll find it in the archives.
So, no, the Marines had nothing to do with it.
Barack's stupid or he's a liar, I don't know which, but he's spinning fairy tales yet again.
It's important to understand this because if you don't understand what happened in 2007 and 2008, you don't understand what happens today.
But over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swathes of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos, and attract foreign fighters who believed in their jihadist nonsense, and traveled everywhere from Europe to the United States to Australia to other parts of the Muslim world, converging on Syria. And so this became ground zero for jihadists around the world. And they have been very savvy in terms of their social media. In some cases, you have old remnants of Saddam Hussein's military that had been expunged from the Iraqi military, which gave them some traditional military capacity, and not just terrorist capacity.
What is he saying?
He should be impeached over those statements because they indicate dementia.
Nouri didn't like Sahwa (also known as the "Awakenings" and the Sons Of Iraq and Daughters Of Iraq). Senator Barbara Boxer objected in April 2008 to all the millions of US taxpayer dollars being spent on Sahwa, paying these people not to attack. Why, she wanted to know, wasn't an oil rich government like Iraq footing the bill for this?
(Again, we were there we covered it in real time, check the archives.)
Realizing the American taxpayers would possibly revolt over paying millions to basically keep Iraqis from stealing Americans' lunch at recess, Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker explained to Nouri he would be paying.
Then the White House and a whorish press corps pretended this happened.
But it didn't.
So a few months later, they pretended again.
Then they had to pretend it had finally happened in 2009 . . .
Then in . . .
Get the picture?
Sahwa was not being paid and then came Nouri's second term and then not only were they not being paid, they were being targeted for arrest.
This is when some members of Sahwa joined the Sunni resistance and began taking part in attacks on the Iraqi government.
If Barack honestly can't grasp these basics, he should resign or be impeached because he's mentally unfit to hold office.
And this is one of the challenges that we are going to have generally, is where you have got states that are failing or in the midst of civil war, these kinds of organizations thrive. That is why it's so important for us to recognize part of our solution here is going to be military.
I know, I know, you're crying tears because I've been so mean here about your failure on the diplomatic front. I've had two different White House friends begging me to stop mentioning that, insisting that now (finally) the White House was going to address it and my commentary here was not helpful.
Hey, I'm not the one organizing a protest against Iraq's new prime minister tomorrow. [Correction: The protest is the 30th, Tuesday.]
That's the White House's failure. They should have stopped wasting time on building their faux 'coalition' and worked on real political solutions.
They failed.
The window is closing and it now may be too late.
And I'm not going to lie and pretty it up.
Nor will I pretend like this isn't the White House's f**k up yet again.
We just have to push them back and shrink their space and go after their command-and-control and their capacity and their weapons and their fueling, and cut off their financing, and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters. But what we also have to do is, we have to come up with political solutions in Iraq and Syria in particular, but in the Middle East generally, that arrives at an accommodation between Sunni and Shia populations that right now are the biggest cause of conflict, not just in the Middle East, but in the world.
Barack hasn't come up with a damn thing. He's just another overgrown boy in the sandbox playing with plastic soldiers.
The hubris involved in thinking he can come up with "political solutions . . . in the Middle East"?
He can't even come up with a political solution for Iraq.
I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4491.
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