Taking a backseat to Russian President Vladimr Putin, President Barack Obama has become more than a lame-duck U.S. president: He’s become less relevant in the global war on Islamic terrorism. In the wake of the Nov. 13 Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130, injuring hundreds more, Obama spoke to Asia’s second most populous Muslim nation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “With allies and partners, the United States will be relentless to those that target our citizens. We will continue to root out terrorist networks. We will not allow these killers to have a safe haven,” Obama proclaimed to the Association of Southeast Asian Naitons, speaking with Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak. Since ending the Iraq War Dec. 15, 2011, Obama’s let the Islamic State and other terrorist groups run wild in Iraq and Syria, eventually resulting in Iraq and Syria losing 30% of its sovereign territory to ISIS.
Obama promised to lead the fight against Islamic terrorism, something he prefers to call “violent extremism.” But ISIS itself declared an Islamic caliphate June 30, 2014, after an unprecedented Islamic blitzkrieg that ripped off some 30% of Iraq and Syria’s sovereign territory. Obama watched ISIS rollover Iraq and Syria, arming itself by smashing the feeble U.S.-backed-and-equipped Iraqi army. Former President George W. Bush spent nearly $2 trillion dollars beefing up the Iraqi military and infrastructure only to watch ISIS break the Iraqi military and steal most of its heavy U.S.-supplied military equipment. Obama and his Secretary of States, both former Secretary of State and Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry, blame the Iraq government’s failure to include enough Sunnis in Iraq’s new Shiite-dominated government.
Whatever misgivings the West had about Putin’s March 1, 2014 invasion of Crimea, he’s grabbed the headlines as the leader of the war on terror. After confirming ISIS downed Russian Metrojet with a soda-can bomb Oct. 31, Putin’s relentlessly bombed ISIS in its self-declared capital of Raqqa, Syria. Putin’s bombing campaign has done more damage in the last five-days than U.S. air strikes initiated by Obama in Sept. 2014. After Islamic radicals, affiliated with al-Qaeda, hit the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali Nov. 20 killing 19 [including six Russians] Putin called on a worldwide effort to defeat terrorism. Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita vowed to not acquiesce to Islamic extremism. Putin has faced his share of Islamic terrorism, especially from Chechen radicals that hit Russian targets. His attacks on ISIS were welcomed by GOP front-runner, real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Since pledging to end the Iraq and Afghan Wars during his campaigns presidency, Obama neglected his role to lead the war on terror. White House officials, especially Kerry, often blame the Iraqi government for not including enough Sunnis or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for regional instability. Obama’s been reluctant to put U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq or Syria to confront ISIS. White House and Pentagon officials know that no Mideast army, with the exception of Israel, is capable of stopping ISIS. Yet, since the end of the Iraq War, Obama has let ISIS grow into a global menace. ISIS propaganda promised to hit more targets in Europe and the U.S., prompting CIA Director John Brennan to warn of possible U.S. strikes. Moscow, not Washington, has taken the lead in aggressively pursuing the ISIS, despite earlier complaints about Putin going after anti-Assad groups.
Obama administration officials can’t have it both ways: Letting terror groups like ISIS run wild and claiming, at the same time, to lead the global fight on terror. Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, Obama described the Mali Radisson attack as “another awful reminder on the scourge of terrorism.” “Once again, the barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge. We will stand with the people of Mali as they world to rid their country of terrorists and strengthen their democracy. With allies and partners, the United States will be relentless,” said Obama. Obama’s administration has done little to combat ISIS and even less to take on al-Qaeda offshoots in Africa like Nigeria’s Boko Haram. It’s no accident that al-Qaeda affiliate Al Mourabitoun and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM] claimed responsibility for the Mali attack, blaming France, Mali’s former colonial power, for meddling in Africa.
Insisting that the U.S. won’t tolerate terrorist safe havens, Obama has a lot to prove in his last year-or-so in office. Letting ISIS fester into a global terrorist threat hit Paris with a wrecking ball Nov. 13. Instead of blaming ISIS on al-Assad’s war “against his own people,” the White House has to wakeup to the Saudi backed Sunni insurgency that killed some 250,000 and displaced 2 million Syrians since the insurgency broke out March 11, 2011. Whatever al-Assad did to defend his sovereignty over the last four years, including using chemical weapons, the White House should heed Putin’s call to focus on ISIS and other terrorist groups rather than topple al-Assad’s Shiite government. Only after Putin gave al-Assad air cover Oct. 30 has the White House reconsidered its misguided policy of toppling al-Assad. Joining Putin and others in stopping ISIS would be a better policy.
