Obama Administration slow to react to Iraq’s requests for assistance
The New York Times reports that the Obama Administration has been to slow to grant requests from Iraq for military assistance to turn the tide of al Qaeda’s recent strategic gains there.
The deteriorating situation in Iraq is not what the Obama administration expected when it withdrew the last American troops from there in 2011. In a March 2012 speech, Antony J. Blinken, who is Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, asserted that “Iraq today is less violent” than “at any time in recent history.”
[…]
Critics say the latest developments show the weakness in an administration strategy designed to shore up Iraqi forces and to combat a growing Islamic militancy in Syria that officials say poses an increasing counterterrorism threat to the United States.
In a speech on Wednesday, Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, said that the American effort to buttress Iraq’s forces had been effective. “The United States has been fast to provide necessary support for the people and government of Iraq,” she said in remarks at the Center for New American Security in Washington.
[…]
A second round of counterterrorism training between American Special Operations commandos and Iraqi troops started in Jordan this week. At least two F-16s are set to arrive in Iraq by September, and six Apaches will be leased for training later this year, Iraqi and Pentagon officials said.
But some former generals who served in Iraq said a greater effort was needed.
James M. Dubik, a retired Army lieutenant general who oversaw the training of the Iraqi army during the surge, summed it up this way: “We should fly some of our manned and unmanned aircraft and put advisers into Iraq that can help the Iraqi Army plan and execute a proper defense, then help them transition to a counter offensive.”
Well, if Susan Rice says that the US has been “fast” to provide support, we can take her at her word, because she never lies, right?
Of course, these were all things that should have been included in the talks with the Iraq government when the discussion hung up on the status of forces agreement (SOFA) before the withdrawal. But the Obama Administration was more interested in using “the war in Iraq is over” meme in the election than they were interested in long term security of the region. Now they’re forced to fight the war all over again.
So, losing Iraq again won’t affect us will it? Well, lets just look at the price of gas now and imagine what it will be when Iraq oil is cut off. But, I’m sure it will be Bush’s fault. The price has risen almost 2% this morning on the news that Tikrit has fallen. But that’s OK, because I’m sure we’re closer to using unicorn crap as an alternate fuel source.
Category: Terror War
Well, now, this is just peachy. Libya. Egypt. Syria. Iraq. Afghanistan. Our internationalist president has done a swell job. But at least he released some terrorists and put some of our people in Chad to help free some kidnapped girls immediately. He said at West Point that he wanted a world in which girls weren’t kidnapped, remember? That was his foreign policy vision. By the way, did Joe Biden die and I missed it?
In the blink of an eye, the caliphate is almost complete.
We pulled out……..and now he’s got……….”egg” 😀 …. on his face……????
/well it *looks* like egg.
B. Hussein 0bama just HAD to pull out ASAP, damned pity his Daddy didn’t, knowhutimean?
Man! I knew I should have invested heavily in Unicorn Futures when I retired. As far as the “Iraq is falling situation”, I don’t believe we can keep coming to their rescue. It was evident to me in 2007 the last time I was there that the Iraqi military had become too dependant on the US military for their resources and taking the fight to the enemy for them.
White House Adviser Lauren Caitlin Upton
Holy Crap! I just got dumber listening to her response !
But hey! She probably knows what twerking is, and how Hollywood actors and actresses are doing! 🙄
In fairness to both Bush and Obama, 30,000 Iraqi soldiers threw down their weapons and retreated in the face of an overwhelming 800 ISIS terrorists. How the fuck is Iraq going to stand on its own with an Army that won’t fight even when it outnumbers the opposition by more than 30 to 1?
We wasted a lot of time, money, and most importantly, blood in that country and I don’t want to waste anymore.
Think “White Mice”.
Former 11B You nailed that and countersunk it! They are cowards who would rather live under terrorist controlled Sharia Law than be free. So let them have what they are willing to fight and die for and no more. DO NOT send U.S. troops or aid back there in any way.
Not one more penny, not one more drop of sweat or blood. Just throw in a box of cheap Ginsu knives and shut the door.
Trying to train Sunni Muslims to fight for a Shi-ite Muslim Government ( or vice versa) is like trying to turn chicken salad into chicken shit.
It would be like putting a unit of Texas Militia in charge of protecting a group of hippies from being attacked by Tennessee militia in San Fransisco.
The total I heard this morning on the news was that 90,000 Iraqi soldiers laid down their arms and fled. What’s that, 3 divisions worth?
Even if our Community Organizer in chief decided this very second to do something drastic, which he won’t, the collateral damage to civilians would put a stake into the heart of any chances for a democracy in Iraq.
Now, I couldn’t give one rats fart about Iraq, except for the American blood that was spilled.
Grrrr.
I think it’s time to start a new discussion. Conventional weapons and tactics have not been successful, and we all know what the definition of insanity is.
I think it’s time to begin a discussion on the use of unconventional weapons and tactics because, let’s face it: it’s on the US to pull the world’s ass out of the fire again, where the latest global threat is concerned. We’re the only ones with the fortitude and the ability to do this. The terrorists, of all stripes, have one goal: to turn the world into an Islamic State. They need to be stopped now. Permanently.
Pinto Nag… I’ve attached something I think you might be interested in reading. It’s 333 pages, so hardly light, but well worth it. It speaks on what your last post was about.
http://www.strategycenter.net/doclib/20080107_coughlin_extremistjihad.pdf
Thank you for that link. I will save that document and read it.
USMCE8Ret: Since you sent me this link, would you send me an email also? I would like to discuss it with you, if you’re willing to do so.
Be glad to. Is there an alternative way to get my e-mail to you w/o posting it here? (I trust most everyone here, but am leery of the possibility that other trolls would see it and load up my inbox.)
We have the means, but with O’Bumbles andthe present Krew in Kongress (both sides), we DON’T have the will.
Personally, I’d LOVE to point a couple of long-range missiles at Mecca & Medina, and one other lesser mosque, and then tell the muzzies to knock it off with the attacks on the West. First move on their part (real or imaginary), takes out the lesser mosque. Next one takes out Mecca/Medina.
THEN watch the fun and rioting begin.
There would be no good end to this. There couldn’t be absent an all-out, no-holds-barred approach to warring. I thought it rather quaint that anyone would suggest with a straight face that, when all was said and done, we would see democracy in the ME, outside of Israel. Democracy is a construct of and for civilized people.
2/17 Air Cav…You’re the BOG winner today! You said the magic word…civilized.
Damn…Meant BIG WINNER
That’s okay, Sparks. I always wanted a BOG of my own. Thanks.
Can we all post on your BOG?
UpNorth…You’re good to go.
Is it the same bog that Crazy Chester caught Richard Manuel in after he pulled into Nazareth?
Hondo…I think it was when he “took a load off Fanny”.
Meant “Take a load off Fanny”. Damned fingers, I feel like VWP now. 😀
That is what Phildo does.
Another 3 am phone call, and once again, nobody home.
So much for ending the war in Iraq. This guy really doesn’t have a clue.
They’re screwed… and another country will fall to terrorists.
Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, said that the American effort to buttress Iraq’s forces had been effective. “The United States has been fast to provide necessary support for the people and government of Iraq,”
Uhm…since when have we been fast to support anything? Benghazi? No. Our Embassy in Baghdad which should have been evacuated yesterday? No. Kidnapped girls in Africa? Sound good solutions to feel good issues and that’s about all. But just wait and see Obama try to save face now by putting us BACK into Iraq. I can see it coming. After all, it’s about democracy you know. We have to support and be the world’s police to ensure oppressed people have democracy. /sarc/
Now we also know what a “decimated” Al Qaeda looks like, a “weakened” Al Qaeda, an Al Qaeda “on the path to defeat.” How many dozens of times has The Emperor described Al Qaeda with those words? More times than he drew a red line, and that’s saying something. “Al Qaeda is on its heels in this part of the world, and that’s because of you.” That line isn’t yet a month old. It comes from his ‘foreign policy’ address at West Point. I had no idea that cadets were fighting Al Qaeda.
What happens when the Libtard fantasy that you can end a war without the input of the other side comes to fruition.
Islamists don’t give a fuck if your poll numbers are war weary and you you’re biggest national security en devour is getting gays integrated into the military. America better wake the fuck up and take this ideology seriously like it did with Communism.
Obama decided he wanted to sell Iraq an Ottoman, when what they really needed was a SOFA.
Yeah, well his “team: is trying to figure out what the hell to do now. What a clusterfuck. Wanna bet he sends in more weaponry and equipment? The terrorists, you see, can use it–and will. I’m sure he’s glad that Bergdahl is off the front page but not so happy why.
His “team” would have to set stakes so that we could see if they were making any progress. And, the answer would still be “nope, no progress at all”.
UpNorth: Yeah, well, it looks like the bug out order has been issued. I wonder how many toys are being blown in place? Do we have a carrier nearby? (Oh, I am regifting. The Bog is now yours.)
Thank you, and I will re-gift the BOG to VWP. It’ll be as much fun wtaching him try to do something as watching a simian try to open a bowling ball.
Have to admit I’m of a mixed mind here.
Part of me would love to tell al Maliki and Talabani, “This is what you asked for when you told us to leave and wouldn’t work out a revised SOFA; enjoy.” But I’ll be damned if I want to see an al Qaeda-run state in possession of Iraq’s oil and raising hell in the Middle East (and the rest of the world), either.
Agree, it would be nice if they both could lose.
But with the Sunnis gaining more power we may get Iran vs Iraq again. That would be nice.
We heard the same b.s. from ford lets send more stuff to the south vietnam ;but some of it got damaged in transit to north vietnam! let iran help their running dog in bagdad soon to be bin ladin city. Are the helicopters on the roof of the U.S. embassy yet. Iraq arabic for vietnam!
Well, it looks like vwp’s Adult Day Care lets out around 3:30PM EDT . . . .
Just reenforcing my point that nothing makes vwp happier than brown people killing other brown people.
VWPeckerhead, have you ever heard of a concept known as “consistency?” I’m guessing not.
One minute you tell us that America sucks for getting involved in Iraq and Obama is the new messiah. Then you say we should jump back into it and even (and this part actually surprised me, coming from you) that your Glorious Leader is fucking up. You even compare it to Saigon in 1975. Funny, since that could have only been prevented by releasing the proverbial hounds and waging total, unrestricted war on North Vietnam as well as their Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao buddies. So in your own pathetic little way, you’re actually admitting that we should have made a desert from the Burmese border to the South China Sea, killed ’em all and let God sort ’em out, while rocking some bitchin’ CCR and hearing the lamentation of their women.
Somewhere in that tiny little microscopic brain of yours, something knows that you really are full of shit. It’s that tiny little voice saying, “Shut up! Shut up! It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let everybody think you’re a fucking retard, rather than open it and confirm their suspicions!”
In short, shut your cock holster.
Looks like it’s Iran to the rescue:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/iran-deploys-forces-to-fight-al-qaeda-inspired-militants-in-iraq-iranian-security-sources-1402592470
Article is paywalled but excerpt from National Review Online states 2 battalions of Quds forces went to Iraq, are guarding critical sites and a combined force has retaken 85% of Tikrit.
This will not end well….
George V,
George V…Iran there now. Another giant reason to stay out of Iraq and get our Embassy people out now.
I am concerned with the brown children dying on our border or trying to get here from ameriKKKa’s upper regimes in guatamala honduras and el salvador ;but not nicarauga interesting as they were the only ones to fight off regains iran-contra treason. What are you doing to help these brown children ???
This I vow, let me find you and I’ll slap you so hard, your grammar, spelling, and sentence structure will improve and you’ll be able to put together a coherent sentence. You fucking racist piece of shit. I AM one of those so – called “brown people” and all I can say is you motherfucking leftists have done more to starve, torture, and kill more of my people than any American “imperialist”. Go fuck yourself and jump off a bridge you useless pile of dog shit!
Where the fuck is the like button on this thing. Well said Mustang1LT, well said. As for VWP you fucking shit stain, just kill yourself already you drooling half-tard.
Climb to Glory…I’m a +100 with you on Mustang1LT’s comment.
+100.
But you were totally cool with Pol Pot in Cambodia.
the prince of cambodia(Ican’t spell his name) tried to keep cambodia out of war and nixon administration had him overthrown like mosadek in iran. When you sow the wind don’t complain about the whirlwind! Mustang those children need your help not your rhetoric!
Leave the children out of this. This is strictly between you and me fuckstick.
Really. Yeah, well, not so much.
But it’s nice to see you’re consistent with that willful ignorance thing. Your lack of understanding the use of the language is only surpassed by your desire to rewrite history.
So, the Nixon administration made Norodom Sihanouk sign a treaty with China and the North Vietnamese to allow VietCong bases in his country for training and resupply purposes? And, it wasn’t Nixon that deposed him. It was his head of state that ousted him, then the Northern Vietnamese before declaring their country neutral again. Oh, he also tried to lead a revolt to push Cambodia back over to the Chinese/North Vietnamese, but he failed.
It was actually America that helped restore him to power during the Reagan administration.
I would highly suggest that you get your head out of Jane Fonda’s box and try reading an actual history book.
VWP…Get a history book then get a clue. You are one dumb ass, racist SOB. I know you just sit there and snicker at the chains you think you are pulling. But in truth, you are simply a shit stained, hippie with more weed than brains. Go shit in another sandbox for a while. Just push one of your twelve cats off the litter box.
On target, Sparks. He’s just a shitbag. He never figured it out. He never became the somebody his parents and uncles and friends hoped he would. He’s just a shitbag.
It’s not too late for him to change. I really and truly believe that he can look around at his peers and the bed that he’s made for himself and finally “rebel against rebellion” as Chesterton put it. But until he does he’s just a shitbag. He’s not pulling chains, he’s merely racking up more no-go’s and losing time.
Eat a bowl of dicks, VWP.
That’s not an insult to him. It’s a desirable fantasy. He can’t even get any action at the bathhouse any more.
Hey VWPieceofshit, my wife is Cambodian. You don’t know dick about what happened there, shitbird. You’ve stated before that you like the Khmer Rouge (go fuck yourself in the ass with a chainsaw for that, slapdick). Those were the people who starved half the population of Cambodia and tortured the other half.
My Father-in-law fought on our side in Vietnam and Cambodia, trained by US advisors. He is also an educated man, which automatically put him and his entire family on the commies’ shit list.
My in-laws suffered for YEARS in Pol Pot’s Killing Fields and death camps. My Father-in-Law was made to watch while they tortured and killed his four-year-old son, after having already seen his parents and brothers die. My Mother-in-Law lost track of how many times they raped her. They eventually escaped and made it to Thailand. I never asked for all the details, but I know it involved a shiv, a stolen AK, multiple dead commies, and my Father-in-Law’s US-trained trigger finger. My wife was born in a Thailand, and they emigrated here a few months later.
Don’t talk about Cambodia, you limp-dick chickenshit cousinfucker. It was people like you that caused, contributed, and encouraged what happened there. May you be assraped in hell for eternity. I piss on higher forms of life than you.
Why all the gay homophobia? This is teh not repressed homosexual blog.
OK, vwp – try this one instead (link is VERY NSFW/children/prudes/clergy).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-WJkJsPZoQ
I think I speak for the majority here when I say, please take that to heart – and execute immediately.
Gay homophobia? Is that like intellectual anti-intellectualism?
Oops, bad example. You wouldn’t understand anything remotely related to “intellectual”. Sorry.
VWP you must have shown up again after I went to dinner so GFY. I agree with The Other Whitey, keep your ignorant mouth shut about the Vietnamese and Cambodians. You know nothing, you and your generation of hippies and liberals watched it happen in Cambodia and did nothing. Homophobia? That says who you are right there. That is one of the biggest misused terms in America. I don’t like queers. I don’t like lesbians. I don’t like that they adopt children in 2 men or 2 women “homes” not “families”. The fact that I don’t like or subscribe to any of that or them, does not mean I am afraid of them which is what a phobia is you dumb ass, cousin fucker. (I don’t like cousin fuckers either, nor am I afraid of them.) The term homophobia became the shut up and sit down phrase of the gay community to silence anyone who disagreed with them. The idea that being near a queer or lesbian was somehow fearful because I would “catch” something from them or somehow bring out some latent homosexual tendency in me. (VWP your tendencies are not latent by the way, they are blatantly queer.) But no, none of that is true for me or anyone I know who feels and believes the same as I do about queers and lesbians. It is their political stances and leftist ideals I oppose. Who they choose to suck, on any given day, in any given mens room is their business. They are just sad that all the Turkish bath houses in San Francisco were shut down because they were seething hot beds of HIV and AIDS. Another couple of diseases which could be gone and cured in two generations at the most with behavioral changes. Any others, cancer or heart disease or major disease of any kind you can think of that can be cured by behavior changes? Stop smoking will help lung cancer but lung cancer happens to those who never smoked or lived around smokers so it is not a behaviorally transmitted disease. HIV and… Read more »
Arm the Kurds.
Recognize the Kurdish state. (Kurdistan)
Problem solved.
The KRG works.
Kurds are just about the only people (at least among the Moslems) over there who don’t suck.
When someone starts going on about oil, the point is being missed. They aren’t fighting over control of oil fields over in that pisshole. The jihadi as a general group want a country of their very own. Oil is incidental. Most of them are too dumb to figure out how to run a modern toilet.
They haven’t made much progress in Syria lately, so they’re moving next door into Iraq. Iran doesn’t want Iraqi refugees, so they will be helping out the crappy Iraqi troops, until things get too tight. The ayatollahs don’t want the jihadi in their country. Iran has its own war equipment factories, lots of them. There are three air bases near Isfahan where gunship helicopters are built and tested. I’ve counted as many as 428 at one airfield at one time. Some of those are big enough to be troop and equipment carriers.
Should we be involved? I don’t think so. It’s a pisshole country with a government that can’t figure out how to tie its own shoelaces, and wants to be babysat and handheld all over again. Oh, please, come get rid of the bad guys for us like you did last time. If we do, how much more will it cost us is resources and more important, lives?
Green Thumb is right. Support the Kurds. Let Iran wastes its time and resources keeping the jihadi out of Iran.
So, where is two-time endorser of Obama, Colin Powell, on this?
It is like the Pottery Barn; You broke it, you bought it, right?
IMHO, B. Hussein 0bama & Company are only concerned about how they can spin this to the media or blame Bush while B. Hussein 0. himself is only concerned about his next golf game, fundraiser, or vacation!
If we don’t want to commit troops to fix this problem, and we also want to fix the problem… and it’s a widespread problem… why not nuke the place?
What other alternatives are available?
We can always drill through the glass…
Well, now I know how my dad felt in April of 1975.
On some level I can almost understand making a decision to remain hands off as Iraq disintegrates into chaos. Don’t necessarily agree, but it is one rational conclusion based upon all the factors.
What I do NOT understand is the refusal to provide air support for the contractors to be evacuated. They are only there because of US policy, doing jobs that the military was not allowed to do. They are not tourists, or deserters.
How many are now left, surrounded by terrorists, waiting until the inevitable occurs? Last count I saw was about 100. They are begging for some air support so that a civilian aircraft can come in to get them.
According to the Prez (last week),,, “we don’t leave anyone behind”
I guess that only applies to those that they think will make them look good. (They/Them = the current administration)
We still have a US Marine sitting in Mexico. I’ll bet we could get him out very easily without trading 5 terrorists. But then again,, he was not a deserter or collaborator that hates his country the same way the POTUS does so I guess its ok to leave him behind.
The difference is that the Marine in the Mexican jail will likely remain alive long enough for another political opportunity to make someone “look good.” The abandoned contractors will not.
Not that the Marine should remain in custody there, but you know how I mean that.
It’s past time now for some Air Force types to just go pick them up. Mass some of those infamous drones to clear the area, get a few dozen assorted tactical aircraft out there then send in some well armed EC-130’s. There are probably plenty of crews that have already volunteered to make it happen.
And, no, I don’t care one miniscule whit about how arrogant some of the contractors might be. They are OUR arrogant pricks, and some of them are not even that.
Agreed!!
We can get all of our people back, wherever they are. The problem I am seeing is that We dont want to(by “we” I mean the Govt. not “we” as in the readers of this site)
We have the means and the abilities. It does not always have to be by force or with military action. The POTUS said that he “has a pen and a phone and will go around congress if needed”, and he has done just that when it suits him. I have absolutly NO respect for him, at all, But I would have to give him a high-five if he would use that “pen and Phone” to call Mexico and tell them to give us our troop back. If the supposedly most powerful man in the world would call them, you know they would cave-in. They just have not been properly motivated yet.
I know I am preaching to the choir here, but this problem is too easy to fix. I hate incompetence and/or indifference
I am afraid that there are going to be a lot more Americans that need to be picked-up, got-out, rescued, etc. now that we negotiate with terrorist.
I’ll step down from the soap box now and turn my rant off. It’s time to uncork the Woodford Reserve and drink a toast to all our people that need to be brought home, wherever they are.