George W. Bush 2007: Pulling all troops from Iraq will risk throwing away gains

Legal Insurrection    "No, George Bush hasn’t actually commented on present events in Iraq, probably because he doesn’t believe it’s helpful for ex-presidents to criticize their successors.

"But he already described the situation back in 2007, when he gave a speech explaining why he was vetoing a bill passed by the Democratic Congress which would have pulled troops out of Iraq (the first three minutes of the video are especially relevant):

 

"For those who say “but Bush negotiated the agreement under which Obama ended up completely pulling out of Iraq,” there is no question that everyone involved in those Bush negotiations expected that the next president would forge a new agreement with the Iraqi government when the time came, and that it would involve leaving some residual forces there. But it was clear that Obama had no interest in doing so; he barely participated in the talks and pulled out when the going got the least bit rough.

"Contrast Bush’s speech in the video above with this speech of Obama’s which he made on the occasion of the complete withdrawal from Iraq. He justifies and celebrates that withdrawal by praising the accomplishments the US had made in Iraq up to then—including and especially those of the surge which he had bitterly opposed as a senator. Ironically and tragically, those achievements have evaporated now, although their loss might well have been prevented had he left a small residual force in the country.

"If we had a real press, they’d all be pointing this out on their front pages. But we don’t."

No Shortage of Advice for Obama: More on What He Should and Will Say About ISIS Tonight

The Daily Signal
 

 

"President Obama “has to avoid the risk of talking about what he will not do and what America will not do,” says Steve Bucci, a former top Pentagon official and a director at The Heritage Foundation. “We have to get the message across that we are going to stand firm against ISIS, that it is going to be with international support … and he needs to avoid putting a timeline on it.”

"Heritage Foundation’s Nile Gardiner, a former adviser to former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, also weighed in on the speech, remarking that, “the international community wants to see real leadership from the United States.' ”

Warning: are we prepared to see videos of captured allied forces being beheaded in TV?

The Chicago Sun-Times: Obama’s ISIS plan appears modest, realistic    "America’s experience in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 13 years has been an unending stream of negative unintended consequences. As America contemplates its next move in the struggle against terrorism, a clear set of lessons has emerged: embrace skepticism, fully anticipate unintended consequences and, above all else, set humane and realistic expectations." Via http://www.lucianne.com/

National address on eve of 9/11 will outline plan for military action, aid for US-backed opposition forces in Syria fighting Islamic State.   "The president's plan includes additional support for opposition militias in Syria vetted by the United States, which will serve as a ground force complementing America's air campaign.

"Former Kurdish fighters or Peshmerga forces currently serve that role in America's air war against Islamic State in Iraq, holding cleared ground after US strikes occur. Obama has ruled out introducing US combat troops on the ground.

"The new policy in Obama's speech will be his expressed intent to strike the group in Syria, after months of deliberation among members of the National Security Council.

"Speaking from the State Floor of the White House, Obama will also discuss a coalition of partners he has rallied to the fight, which thus far includes the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates."

 

From our traditional and loyal allies, Great Britain:  Barack Obama and Isil: time for America's deliberator-in-chief to man up   "Tonight, exactly one year after Barack Obama strode to a microphone in the East Room of the White House to make a prime-time televised address to the nation on "what to do about Syria", the US president is preparing once again to do…just that.
Even by the tortured standards of Mr Obama, the 2013 address was a truly dismal affair in which the President could be heard arguing with himself over his own non-response to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons.
In "my judgment as Commander in Chief", the president said, Assad should suffer "a targeted military strike" for breaking the century-long taboo against using chemical weapons. But as "President of the world's oldest constitutional democracy", Mr Obama explained half a breath later, he had decided to "take this debate to Congress".   Via http://www.lucianne.com/

Former Secretary of Defense Cheney speaks on the threats in the Middle East

Mr. Cheney as we know him

Behind Closed Doors, Cheney Tells Republicans That Obama Supported Muslim Brotherhood
... "According to Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, Cheney said Obama “has actually done things that have supported the Muslim Brotherhood.” The former vice president then went on to name the Muslim Brotherhood as “the beginning of all the Islamist groups that we’re dealing with now like Hamas and ISIS.”
"In Fleming’s account, Cheney said that by “facilitating the Muslim Brotherhood…our policies have been exactly opposite to where they should be.”

Mr. Cheney as pictured by the left

Cheney attacks Obama support for Muslim Brotherhood in closed door meeting with House Republicans     ... "With President Obama poised to give a major speech on Wednesday about military action against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Cheney spoke to the assembled Republican congressmen about the situation in the Middle East at their weekly caucus meeting. And while the GOP has been fiercely divided over foreign policy in recent years, Cheney didn’t wade into that debate, instead opting to pillory Obama in front of an audience giving him “rapt attention.' ”

Cheney: Obama 'pink slips' to troops have military at 'crisis point'   "Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that President Obama has slashed the military so deeply that troop levels will be below where they were on the 9/11 attacks, a gutting that begs foes to exploit the Pentagon’s vulnerabilities.

“ 'We’re investing in defense as if the dangers of the world were all in quiet retreat,” warned Cheney, a former defense secretary, in a morning speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

"With typically blunt words, Cheney said that Obama has whittled away the strong military he was left with by former President George W. Bush." ...
 

Reading list on the President's speech tonight

Blackfive: Major Garrett (CBS) asks "Why watch Obama talk about ISIL?"  "Major Garrett of CBS asked "Why would anyone watch?" Obama talk about his ISIL strategy tonight when he will not be announcing any specifics or an actual plan to win. Painful but legit question, I have some painful and funny truth in response."

truthrevolt.org

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:  Obama's Prime Time Challenge  "President Obama will address the nation in a prime-time speech at 9 p.m. ET on the threat posed by the Islamic State.
"Morning Line: "The president's challenge tonight -- the day before the 13th anniversary of 9/11 -- is to sell military action to a war-weary country skeptical of military intervention and of his ability to lead. By the way, don't expect it to be a long speech, which may indicate an address meant to make the moral case but short on detail."
"First Read: "It's also worth pointing out that Obama's speech tonight is unusual for a president outlining a strategy for military action. Why unusual? Because the country is already there; in some ways, it's the public trying to rally the Commander-in-Chief."  (Emphasis mine, TD)

From JustOneMinute:   Prepping For Obama's Call To Arms    "Tonight Obama will attempt to rally a troubled nation behind his uncertain leadership. I offer this passage as a suggestion to his strategic thinking:" ...

World Mag: Globe Trot: Will the president order anti-ISIS airstrikes in Syria?  "Beyond political considerations, lives and homelands are at stake across the Middle East. Ryan Crocker, former U.S ambassador to Iraq and Syria warns: 

“There is no time left to argue, dither, and wonder what should be done about those who are butchering Americans—and anyone else they care to—across a growing portion of the Middle East.

The enemy has no such doubts. They are not going away. They are getting stronger. The war, ladies and gentlemen, is truly on. We’re just not a meaningful part of it yet.”

Democrats in Congress poised to approve $5 billion in new funding  How will it be spent?

Andrew C. McCarthy; Obama’s belief that he can “manage” the Islamic State may collide with reality.

 

"President Obama says he intends to shrink the al-Qaeda-spawned Islamic State into a “manageable problem.” Perhaps we’ll learn more about how when he speaks to the nation on Wednesday evening. Still, the question presses: Is he the manager for the job?

"In answering that question, past performance is more a guarantee of future results than is any statement of newfound purpose from a president whose innate dishonesty has turned his signature phrase “Let me be clear” into notorious self-parody." ...

Thomas Sowell: Obama’s Shameful ISIS Strategy ;  "The president’s only concern is getting the crisis off the front pages."

... Generations of Americans yet unborn may curse us all for leaving them hostage to a nuclear terrorist Iran. But generations yet unborn do not vote, so they carry no weight with Barack Obama.

... "Everything in Barack Obama’s history suggests that he is going to leave the job half done, so long as that gets the issue off the front pages and off the TV newscasts."

  
 

How to Shrink Your Church and Your Political Party

The American Culture

 

... So how do you shrink your church? Throw your principles out the door (in this case principles would be historic, orthodox doctrine), and adopt cultural values that are at war with those principles. This, of course, is supposedly the way to attract more people, especially those paragons of wisdom and virtue, millennials. Because no doubt if something is appealing to someone in their 20s, or even 30s, it must be right! But alas, it doesn’t quite work out this way: 

 [A] number of Christian denominations have already taken significant steps towards liberalizing their stances on homosexuality and marriage, and the evidence so far seems to indicate that affirming homosexuality is hardly a cure for membership woes. On the contrary, every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization of sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership.

Full Article.

How To Shrink Your Church In One Easy Step                                                           

 "Every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization on sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership." 

 

 Photo at right from Energetic Procession

 

Former prosecutor says Wisconsin investigation 0f Gov. Walker fuled by “hyper-partisan” DA and union activist wife

Hot Air   ... "This is only the latest skirmish in the Left’s apparent campaign to criminalize political disagreement — ranging from a proposed Constitutional amendment restricting political speech, to an endless ‘Bridgegate’-to-nowhere investigation in New Jersey, to the utterly preposterous indictments against Texas Gov. Rick Perry.  If these tactics prove successful, what’s to stop agenda-driven prosecutors in heavily partisan jurisdictions from routinely cooking up criminal inquiries and charges for the sole purpose of hanging a dark cloud over a rival politician during an election season?  By the time the target has time to clear his or her name, the political damage has been done." ...

... " Genuine public corruption is a scourge that must be rooted out, but abusing the legal system to harass and silence ideological opponents is disgraceful.  I’ll leave you with one of Walker’s latest ads touting Wisconsin’s job growth..."
 

The Virtue of Subtlety: A U.S. Strategy Against the Islamic State

STRATFOR    "U.S. President Barack Obama said recently that he had no strategy as yet toward the Islamic State but that he would present a plan on Wednesday. It is important for a president to know when he has no strategy. It is not necessarily wise to announce it, as friends will be frightened and enemies delighted. A president must know what it is he does not know, and he should remain calm in pursuit of it, but there is no obligation to be honest about it.

"This is particularly true because, in a certain sense, Obama has a strategy, though it is not necessarily one he likes. Strategy is something that emerges from reality, while tactics might be chosen. Given the situation, the United States has an unavoidable strategy. There are options and uncertainties for employing it. Let us consider some of the things that Obama does know."   Read More..

By George Friedman

A photograph that will haunt you

Know the enemy we must fight.

Republican Security Council

The DOJ plans to issue a warrant for this man's arrest and a lawyer

will be appointed for him.

"This photo shows an Islamic State (IS) militant with a terrified 7 year old girl in Syria. IS refers to her as a kafir, which has no human value to them. They can be exploited for skills, sex, slavery, or anything else. "

17-year-old says she is one of about 40 Yazidi women and girls, some as young as 12, still being held captive and sexually abused on a daily basis by Isil fighters

Would you feel safe?…

Liberal Logic 101

 

Al Sharpton and Eric Holder, we need your help!

Gang of Black Teens Beats White Memphis Grocery Store Employee into Unconsciousness    ... "Video taken by customers on the scene attest to the viciousness of the attack. It shows screaming, joking, laughing black members of the mob attacking and kicking a white Kroger employee lying immobile on the ground.

"Memphis Police Department Director Toney Armstrong released a statement on Sunday morning, making no mention of a possible hate crime." ...
 

'They got a white dude!"
 

Black School Girl Beat Up for Acting 'Too Much Like a White Person'  ... "This kind of racial hatred has to be learned from somewhere or someone. Movies like Django Unchained only help to promote racial hatred. Rappers shout out words of hate not much different than those of Sharpton, Robertson and other radicals. Obama and Holder lead by example, but the bottom line is that I believe much of it is learned at home from an early age."

It's 3 am and Commander-in-Chief Obama's phone is ringing

Obama to give address on Islamic State at 9 p.m. Wednesday from White House

A President Whose Assurances Have Come Back to Haunt Him    "When President Obama addresses the nation on Wednesday to explain his plan to defeat Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, it is a fair bet he will not call them the “JV team.”

 

"Nor does he seem likely to describe Iraq as “sovereign, stable and self-reliant” with a “representative government.” And presumably he will not assert after more than a decade of conflict that “the tide of war is receding.”... Video.

Show Them No Mercy, for You Shall Receive None   "At the climax of the first battle for Middle Earth, between the World of Men and the evil Sauron’s army, clear direction is laid out for dithering American leadership when confronting murderous savages in a hard, dark world.  Aragorn, de facto leader of the Men, surveys the 10,000 Orcs roaring outside for war, champing at the bit with yellow fangs, eager to slaughter the world of Men.

"Aragorn shouts his final command to his fighters as both battle cry and warning: Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none. 

 

 

... "That is why Obama’s head-scratching over how to proceed with ISIS is mystifying.  These are the bad guys.  There are no shades of gray, nor colorable issues to mull over in late-night gab sessions with Valerie Jarrett.  This one is easy." ...
...

"ISIS is well-funded, deeply committed, and deadly serious.  They may not be here yet, but they will come.  Analysis has its place when lines are blurry.  Here, there is only the bright red line of civilization on one side, and knuckle-dragging, pitiless barbarians on the other.

"Use every tool we have and wipe them out.  Without mercy."

His fecklessness about the Islamic State was too much even for his supporters.

" The media did its job this time. It told Obama loud and clear that his response wasn’t good enough. It was a welcome break from the way it has shielded the president from reality in one disaster after another these last six years.
...
"Let Americans take note of the Red Line of the President of the United States: It is not drawn to delimit the Islamic State, it is drawn to restrain the U.S. military. It is not something to give heart to America’s friends around the world. Or to instill fear in its enemies."   Emphasis added, TD

From Lucianne:

Goldberg: Obama Will Do 'Just Enough to Make ISIS Headlines Go Away'

Ron Fournier: Is Obama Leading or Being Led?   "Consider this paradox: Americans overwhelmingly support President Obama's actions against the Islamic State so far—airstrikes and humanitarian assistance without ground troops—and yet they disapprove of Obama's handling of the ISIS crisis. Why the split mind?"   More on this: Poll: Public supports strikes in Iraq, Syria; Obama’s ratings hover near his all-time lows

About those "moderate" Syrian rebels we want to help... (Updated)

Expert who traveled with Syrian rebels: So-called ‘moderates’ are Muslim Brotherhood-style Islamists   ... “Undoubtedly outside of Syria, and in the Syrian opposition structures, there are civilian political activists and leaders who are opposed to al-Qaida and opposed to Islamism,” Spyer explained to TheDC in an email interview. “There are also civilian activists and structures within the country which are opposed to al-Qaida and Islamism. But when one looks at the armed rebel groups, one finds an obvious vast majority there who are adherents of Islamism of one kind or another — stretching from Muslim Brotherhood-type formations all the way across to groups openly aligned with al-Qaida central and with al-Zawahiri.”... 
...
"So even those forces nominally aligned with western supported bodies are themselves overwhelmingly Islamist in outlook (there may be a very small and marginal number of forces who are ostensibly secular, but these are of no military significance). It’s my contention that the real power in the rebellion lies not in the external structures, but among the commanders of the major fighting groups. These men are Islamists.' ”... Read more:

 

UPDATED: Syria’s ‘So-Called Moderate Rebels’ Sold Sotloff To ISIS   See update:
White House says beheaded U.S. journalist not 'sold' to Islamic State
"The United States has no information indicating beheaded American journalist Steven Sotloff was "sold" to Islamic State militants by moderate Syrian opposition rebels, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Tuesday.

"Sotloff family spokesman Barak Barfi told CNN on Monday night the family believed Islamic State paid up to $50,000 to rebels who told the militant group the 31-year-old journalist had entered Syria."

crethiplethi.com