Go Big or Go Home; Iraq Needs U.S. Ground Troops More Than Ever

Council on Foreign Relations

U.S. soldiers carry an Iraqi national flag and a U.S. flag during a ceremony in Baghdad. (Courtesy Reuters)
 

 " ...U.S. President Barack Obama has insisted that Iraq needs an inclusive government capable of winning support among not only the country’s Shia majority but also its Sunni minority. Obama also declared that the formation of such a government must precede any attempt to defeat ISIS. Washington’s current military intervention reflects that analysis: until Baghdad agrees to Washington’s political vision, the United States has declared that it will commit only to conducting limited air strikes -- that is to say, air strikes that are sufficient to halt the extremists’ progress but not to defeat them.

"Washington’s strategy is backward. Any diplomatic leverage in Iraq would come from demonstrating that it can defeat ISIS. In other words, if the United States wants to influence the political situation in Iraq, it must first make itself an indispensable military player there."...
...
"There is a window of opportunity to steer Iraq toward a better future and a closer relationship with the West, but doing so will require a significant military commitment from the United States. Obama is facing a go-big-or-go-home moment in Iraq. How he responds will help determine not only that country’s future but also his own foreign policy legacy."   Full article..

Did White House press secretary Josh Earnest just tell the biggest whopper of the Obama era?

"I DUNNO, THERE’S A LOT OF COMPETITION FOR THAT ONE:"

Just Joshing

Washington Examiner   "Josh Earnest is either the most gullible individual ever to serve as White House press secretary or the least concerned with telling the American people the truth.

"In a letter Monday to a coalition of 42 journalism groups and media organizations, Earnest said this:

""The president's commitment to transparency and the crucial role of the independent press is unwavering. The president has set an historically high standard of transparency that is part of the legacy to which future presidents will aspire ...' "

... "Both the journalist coalition letter and the Earnest response are well-worth taking the time required to read and compare, particularly in light of Obama's promised transparency on his first day in office."

Mark Steyn on what this photo can do to multi-culturalism

Chip Off the Old Block

 

"Do you remember a mere three years ago when the gullible sob-sisters of the western media declared the Arab Spring "the Facebook revolution"?

"It wasn't, of course. But what's going on right now in the Iraqi and Syrian territory held by the new Caliphate is the real Facebook revolution, and Twitter revolution, and Tumblr revolution, and YouTube revolution. These guys love social media. They can't wait to chop your head off and then zip the video footage all around the world. In the old days, when you decapitated somebody, the best you could do was stick his head on a spike on the edge of the village, and hope for good word of mouth from those terrified locals with an eye for the telling detail. Now you can saw through somebody's neck or stone a woman to death in the Sunni Triangle and, thanks to your Verizon or O2 account, your friends back in London or Frankfurt or Chicago can see it instantly!"  More here..

Meet the Jetstones   "Further to yesterday's SteynPost on the Aussie schoolboy and the severed head he's holding, Sydney's Daily Telegraph calls out Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on his bizarre warning that Australians think twice before "using" that image.

"The reason Mr Shorten feels he has to threaten his fellow citizens is because of the profound challenge that photograph poses to the multiculti delusions in which he and many others are so invested."

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Says ‘British and Islamic values can go hand in hand’

The entire world affected by the choice of the American voters. Twice.

Obama presides over unraveling of his predecessors’ foreign policy accomplishments
“ 'The surge had undoubtedly met its stated aim of buying the time and space necessary for the Iraqi government to advance national reconciliation and, at least in theory, develop the capacity to provide adequate public services,” a 2011 article in Foreign Affairs magazine by reporter Emma Sky read.

As I prepared to depart Iraq in August 2010, it was clear that the close partnership between the U.S. military and the ISF had paid dividends. Accompanying [Gen. Raymond] Odierno as he toured the country to review the progress, I witnessed U.S. and ISF soldiers celebrating each time the United States transferred one of its bases to Iraqi forces, conducting ceremonies in which U.S. commanders symbolically delivered the keys to their Iraqi counterparts. The strong individual and institutional relationships between the two forces contributed to a growing sense of security across the country.

... "It was not America’s patience, but the patience of its political establishment that deserved the credit. The American public would have long ago abandoned Iraq to its own murderous devices had the political will existed in Washington to invite that kind of calamity. Sobriety and foresight guided Washington’s approach to the situation in Iraq, but only just long enough to provide Obama with the space he needed to desert Iraq entirely."

"Today, that country is a failed state"..
...
" Iraq is not the first of Obama’s predecessors’ foreign policy accomplishments which he has undone."
...
"With more than two years of the Obama presidency to go, he may secure for himself even more dubious accomplishments."  Emphasis added, TD

Dana Milbank: Obama vacations as the world burns

 

"Such visuals probably won’t help Obama with the 60 percent of Americans who disapprove of his handling of foreign policy. Even his former secretary of state is registering her disapproval."   Via Lucianne.

 

Obama adjusts Iraq narrative, now blames Bush for troop withdrawal   
"The president who spent years touting the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq suddenly has had to distance himself from that action.

"At the White House on Saturday morning — less than 48 hours after authorizing airstrikes against Islamist militants and humanitarian air drops to save the lives of trapped Iraqi civilians — President Obama blamed his predecessor, George W. Bush, for the absence of American troops in Iraq and rejected the assertion that he could have left a small peacekeeping force in the war-torn nation."

How presidential; Obama calls criticism of his Syria policy 'horses**t'   "President Obama has never led anyone, anywhere, at any time in his professional career. Never met a payroll, never led men in battle, never had to deal with the political opposition as a governor, and was never forced to stake out a controversial political position (his anti war views sat very well with his Hyde Park constituents).Why would anyone expect Barack Obama to suddenly acquire leadership skills when he never demonstrated that he had any once in his life?

"His successor will be forced to pick up the pieces of a shattered world in 2016."




 Bush League   " Perhaps to cushion the blow of losing his leadership during his semi-monthly vacation, Barack Obama took time Saturday to remind the American people that he isn't actually responsible for leading diddly-squat, at least when it comes to showing accountability.

"Specifically, the nation's golfer-in-chief took pains to point out that the current fiasco in Iraq can be blamed entirely on George W. Bush." ...

Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler, and German Cinema of the Nazi Era

Jew Eat Yet?   "Is it possible to appreciate the art of your oppressors even if its intent is to annihilate you? Does such an attraction reveal some deep-seated neuroses or perhaps a tendency towards self-hatred?"


"I’ve always been a huge fan of German cinema, including many of the propaganda films made during the heyday of the Third Reich. The most famous of these are Leni Riefenstahl’s  “Olympia”  and “Triumph of the Will.” Say what you like about Riefenstahl’s “innocence” or “guilt,” there’s no question that she was a remarkable filmmaker whose work pushed the boundaries of cinematic artistry. Whatever her personal motives (she claims she was something of a dupe and not a supporter of Hitler’s vision for the German people), Riefenstahl’s work underscorses how effective such propaganda tools are. After watching either of these films, I can see how politically ambivalent people might be moved to declare their allegiance to the Master Race. "
Read the full article. 

 

OLYMPIA Part One: Festival of the Nations by... by myfilm-gr

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder-in-chief

http://terrellaftermath.com/

The Un-Midas Touch; Everything He Touches Turns to......

Victor Davis Hanson

Photo via PJMedia

"Everything that Barack Obama touches seems to turn to dross. Think of it for a minute. He inherited a quiet Iraq  (no American combat deaths at all in December 2009 ). Joe Biden bragged of the calm that it would be the administration’s“greatest achievement.”  But by pulling out all U.S. peacekeepers — mostly for a 2012 reelection talking point  — Obama ensured an ISIS wasteland . He put his promised eye on Afghanistan at last, and we have lost more soldiers there than during the Bush administration and a Taliban victory seems likely after more than a decade of lost American blood and treasure. The message seems to be that it is better for Obama to have his eye off something than on it.

"Remember those threats to Syria? After the U.S. threatened and backed off, the violence only escalated and spilled into Iraq."  ...   Full article.

Robin Williams: Incredibly Talented Friend of US Troops, But Suicide is THE Most Selfish Act; Pelosi Donor

Debbie Schlussel

... "Although he was an avowed liberal Democrat who gave a lot to Democrats (especially Nancy Pelosi) and other leftist causes, Williams spent a lot of time entertaining the troops. If you look on Google Images, you’ll see photo after photo of Williams entertaining American troops countless times and in countless countries, from Kuwait to Baghdad and everywhere else. Contrast that to Oprah Winfrey, who was asked by the Bush Administration to just ask visit Afghan girls once and ask them to attend school. She refused.

"Robin Williams was also pro-Israel, and in 2008, he joined a number of celebrities (including Tom Cruise) in wishing Israel a Happy 60th Birthday.

"So, I’ll remember Robin Williams for those good things. But it’s wrong for us to soft-pedal suicide as if the perpetrator bears no responsibility or reason to be judged accordingly."

"In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man." Pamela Geller

WARNING: ISIS jihadists are systematically beheading Christian children in Iraq  Graphic and terrible images; use discretion before opening this.

More on this at Catholic Online.

Lessons of the War in Gaza

Israel came off well in this faceoff with barbarism, though it can expect more assaults before long.

 

Daniel Pipes   ... "Hamas’s unrelenting barbarism created a rare consensus among Jewish Israelis in favor of victory. This near unanimity both strengthens the government’s hand in dealing with outside powers (Prime Minister Netanyahu admonished the U.S. administration never again to second-guess him) and is likely to move Israeli domestic politics decisively to the right, into the nationalist camp."

 

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/08/branco-cartoon-reset/

 

Gaza “Civilian Casualty” Count Untrue and in Question   ... "Spokesman Captain Eytan Buchman told BBC News that “the UN numbers being reported are, by and by large, based on the Gaza health ministry, a Hamas-run organisation.”

 

" While jihadists behead non-Muslims and religious minorities en masse, the world continues its obsession with the Jewish state."

Hamas TV: Dress Up Like A Jew And Become A Suicide Bomber

Truth Revolt  These are the beloved of Code Pink and campus liberals.

 

"During the Gaza war, the official television stations of Hamas and the supposedly-moderate Fatah party, which runs the Palestinian Authority, released videos promoting suicide bombings against Israel.  The Hamas video suggested the bombers dress up like Orthodox Jews to perform their act of terror, while Fatah recommended  turning oneself into a human bomb as an expression of life.

"The Hamas video, which ran at least three times on Al-Aqsa TV, the official Hamas TV network, during July, shows a terrorist putting on a suicide belt and dressing up as the stereotyped, bearded Orthodox Jew before he is led off to kill himself and others."

Detonate The Truth: Liberals Willingly Enable Genocide

KURT SCHLICHTER   "Understand this clearly:  Liberals are absolutely fine with the genocide in Iraq.

"How do I know?  Because they’ve told us.  Barack Obama looked into the camera and said he will not send in American ground forces.  Of course, everyone knows that only American ground forces, backed by airpower, can stop ISIS.  So Obama has made a choice, as have his liberal minions.  They have chosen to let the genocide continue.

"Disgraceful.  Even Bill Clinton has the moral wherewithal to regret his craven abandonment of the million Rwandans butchered as he dithered."

"But you won’t hear liberals admitting the choice they have made.  Instead, you'll hear a lot of nonsense about how the ISIS disaster in Iraq is all the fault of Bush, Halliburton and the Trilateral Commission.  Apparently, that's supposed to be an all-purpose excuse to do nothing but allow a few tactically meaningless airstrikes as, right now, men, women and children are being tortured, enslaved, and ethnically cleansed by these jihadist scum.

" We cannot allow liberals to escape the consequences of their conscious decision not to use all sufficient forces to defeat ISIS.  They are absolutely willing to allow this genocide to happen, and we need to make sure everyone knows it." ...


People like this need have no fear of western liberals:   Jihadist Tweets Pic of Son Holding Decapitated Head
"Terrorist Khaled Sharrouf tweeted a picture of his son holding up the head of a decapitated Syrian soldier with the caption "that's my boy." The boy was raised in the suburbs of Sydney. "

That should have been a boy holding a fish he caught.