President Obama was warned about what could happen, what would happen, if he prematurely and recklessly pulled all U.S. troops from Iraq. And now it’s happening.
The most extreme of the extremists are in the process of overrunning Iraq. It’s hard to imagine a group of human beings more despicable and violent than Al-Qaeda, but ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) the group which may soon be in charge of all or most of Iraq, except possibly the northeast Kurdish region, is so diabolical that even Al-Qaeda has shunned them.
Could this have been avoided? Absolutely.
Over 4,200 brave Americans sacrificed their lives prevailing in Iraq. Over 25,000 more were wounded, many with life-changing, disfiguring injuries. And 1.7 trillion in our tax dollars were spent there.
These tremendous sacrifices, culminating in the highly successful Surge, had resulted in a fairly stable Iraq, and a potential U.S. ally in a critically important part of the world.
Then Barack Obama became President. It had always been part of the plan to keep a residual U.S. military force in Iraq, in order to secure America’s gains, won at so high a cost. When Obama failed to come to terms with the Iraqi government on this matter, he just pulled all our troops out.
And politically, this may have helped Obama in his re-election. But for U.S. interests, it was disastrous. He put HIS short term political interests ahead of the long term interests of America. And we, and our allies, and the Iraqi people, are now paying a high price for Obama’s blunder.
Can anything be done about it now? Unfortunately, we’re now left with choosing the least bad option. And whatever we do, it may well be too late.
Obama says he’ll condition any U.S. help to Iraq on President al Maliki’s willingness to include Sunnis more in Iraq’s government (al Maliki is Shia.) That’s fine, except it was Obama’s abandoning of al Maliki in the first place that caused Iraq’s President to turn exclusively to his Shia base. And besides, by the time al Maliki could realistically make these changes, he’s likely to be overrun already.
What they need ASAP is U.S. air power. And probably something that Obama has already ruled out, some boots on the ground, probably special ops forces who could direct the targeting of the air power, and perhaps give the Iraqi military some backbone, those that haven’t already removed their uniforms, let their weapons fall into the hands of ISIS, and fled for their lives.
And what was President Obama doing while the disaster in Iraq was unfolding? Playing golf, attending political fundraisers, and giving a speech in which he claimed that the greatest threat to the world was – climate change – (which might raise sea levels, somewhat, 50 years from now.)
The bottom line. The thought of having huge amounts of wealth, bank gold reserves and cash, American weaponry, and the infrastructure of a nation, in the hands of the likes of Al-Qaeda, is too awful to contemplate. But if the Obama Administration continues to dither, that’s exactly what we may have on our hands in the very near future.
God help us.
