Speaking at a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 68-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] barbaric persecution of Christians and other minority groups “genocide.” “We have enough evidence,” Hillary told the Portsmouth crowd, referring to ISIS’s killing machine, to define the ongoing slaughter of innocents as “genocide.” What’s happening is genocide, deliberately aimed at destroying not only the lives but wiping out the existence of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East in territory controlled by ISIS,” Hillary insisted, the same “genocide” label used to justify toppling Libya’s Col. Muammar Gaddafi Aug. 23, 2011. Hillary insisted in 2011 that the U.S. had to act against Gaddafi before he committed “genocide” against pro-democracy rebel groups seeking his ouster.
Hillary was emphatic Nov. 30 about not committing U.S. ground troops to Iraq or Syria, despite what she’s now refers to as ISIS “genocide.” When her husband, former President Bill Clinton, started bombing Kosovo Feb. 28, 1998, he insisted the U.S. was preventing “genocide” by Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. While talking about “genocide” on Christians and other minority groups,” Hillary forgot about the ISIS mafia-like massacre Aug. 6, 2014 of some 5,000 Yazidis near Mt. Sinjar in Northwestern Iraq. However many Yazidis were liquidated by ISIS, there’s no question the intent was to eliminate an entire ethnic group, believed, by ISIS, as devil worshipers. Hillary’s willingness to prevent genocide in Libya, or, to back her husband’s 1998 policy against genocide in Kosovo, makes no sense today. Opposing ground troops in Iraq and Syria, Hillary can’t get her policy right.
If Hillary really believes that ISIS is committing acts of genocide, you’d think she’d back any military intervention, including ground troops, to stop attempts to wipe out religious groups and ethnic minorities. “I said, you know, that term [genocide] carries with it legal import. It is a very important concept and label for behavior that deserves that name, Hillary told the Portsmouth crowd. “I said, ‘We are only at the beginning at seeing this, and I am no sure yet we have enough evidence,’ I am sure now we have enough evidence,” qualifying the U.S. response to genocide. Coined by Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in his 1944 work “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe,” genocide referred to the systematic attempt to exterminate a population, religious or ethnic group like the Armenians or the Jews. Assigning the genocide label to ISIS requires a decisive military action.
Admitting ISIS’s ongoing massacre is genocide changes the threshold for U.S. military intervention. After pulling U.S. combat troops out of Iraq Dec. 15, 2011, President Barack Obama has been reluctant to put boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Final discussions on ending the Iraq War went badly with former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki refused to grant the Pentagon immunity for a continued U.S. troop presence after ending the war. While former President George W. Bush set the timetable to withdraw U.S. combat troops before leaving office Jan. 20, 2009, Obama’s relations deteriorated with al-Maliki. Obama’s critics blamed him for the rise of ISIS, pulling out combat troops prematurely from Iraq. ISIS was created out of the ashes of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s Revolutionary Guards, eventually exacting revenge for the Iraq War.
Calling ISIS’s atrocities “genocide,” Pope Francis had little trouble invoking the word to call attention to the need for international community to act together. “Unlike this president—the one we have now—I’m going to call it for what it is,” said GOP candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) at a rally in Iowa. “It’s a genocide,” pointing fingers at Obama for doing too little too late. Stopping short of calling ISIS’s massacres genocide in 2014, Obama described the group’s barbarism as reaching new heights. “They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape and force women into marriage. They threatened a religious minority with genocide,” said Barack, referring to ISIS’s attempts to wipe out the Yazidis. By jumping on the genocide bandwagon, Hillary leaves herself vulnerable to criticism for failing to put boots on the ground to stop the atrocities.
Claiming victory in Ramadi against ISIS, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi thanked the Kurd’s Peshmerga fighters and U.S. Special Forces for helping to rid the area of the world’s biggest terror threat. Seizing 50% of Iraqi territory in 2014, al-Abidi promised to return oil-rich city of Mosul back to Iraq. Al-Abadi insisted that Turkish forces get out of Iraq or face possible military force. Accused by Moscow of making millions off illicit ISIS oil sales, Turkey has refused to pull its military out of Iraq. Al-Abadi asked the U.N. Security Council to ask Turkey to get out of Iraq. No one knows why Turkey needs troops near Mosul, other that assuring safe passage of ISIS oil tankers to Turkey. Obama asked Turkey Dec. 19 to pull troops out of Iraq. With a victory in Ramadi, Iraq’s demonstrated a renewed commitment to control its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
