by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 9, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

                  Former President George W. Bush didn’t listen to his elders in the father’s, [George H.W. Bush] administration warning against toppling Iraq’s Baathist leader Saddam Hussein.  Former H.W. Bush National Security Advisor Brent Scocroft, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin L. Powell and others on the national security team discouraged Bush-41 from deposing Saddam during the first Gulf War [Aug. 2, 1990 to Jan. 17, 1991] when the U.S. Army-led coalition evicted Iraq from Kuwait.  When Bush-43 bombed Baghdad March 20, 2003 in what was known as the Iraq War or Operation Iraqi Freedom, it took only three weeks to topple Hussein April 10, 2003, disbanding the Iraqi military.  Ten years later Saddam’s former Baathist generals emerged running the military show for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, seizing some 30% of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

             U.S. officials, in the Bush-43 administration or President Barack Obama’s White House, refuse to admit that ISIS—and the anarchy in parts of Iraq and Syria—directly result from the Iraq War.  Sworn in Jan. 20, 2009, Obama faced the Great Recession, promising to get the U.S. economic house in order before fulfilling his campaign promise to end the Iraq War Dec. 15, 2011.  Saddam’s former Baathist generals, led by his in-law Gen. Ibrahim Issat al-Douri, jumped at U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, leading to the 2014 ISIS bliztzkrieg, capturing large swaths of Iraq and Syria.  Obama only reluctantly committed to air strikes against ISIS in Iraq Aug. 7, 2014, and a month later going after ISIS in Syria.  White House officials were hesitant to do anything in Iraq and Syria that kept Bashar al-Assad in power or inadvertently helped al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front or other terror groups.

             Kerry’s declaration today that the U.S. and its coalition are on the way to defeating ISIS looks hypocritical since Bush’s Iraq War created the mess.  “I believe we are on the road to [degrading and defeating ISIS], Kerry said On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” touting Jordan’s role after watching ISIS torch Jordan F-16 fighter pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh alive Feb. 2 in steal cage—though some believe he was actually killed in early January and used as an ISIS propaganda prop.  “Yes, I absolutely do,” Kerry told Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press,” referring to the White House fulfilling Obama’s promise to “destroy” ISIS.  Before Jordan got serious, ISIS continued to hang onto most of its captured territory in Iraq and Syria.  Gearing up for the battle of Mosul that ISIS captured June 10, 2014, Kerry still insists that the U.S. will not put boots-on-the-ground in any combat role.

             Expecting the battered Iraq military to carry the load against ISIS is unrealistic, especially because rank-and-file members under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi have sympathies to Saddam’s old Revolutionary Guards.  Iraq’s former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki found out the hard way about infiltration by Saddam’s Baathists and Taliban in Iraq’s security forces.  Al-Maliki’s vaunted army rolled over when Gen. al-Douri led former Saddam’s Baathists to capture large swaths of Iraq and Syria.  While it’s true that ISIS’s 44-year-old spiritual leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi learned from Osama bin Laden how to spew Islamist propaganda to convert wayward youth, ISIS’s military would have limited success without Saddam’s U.S.-trained military.  “The coalition is strong, more committed than ever, particularly in the aftermath of the burning of the Jordanian pilot,” Kerry insisted.

             When you consider the Iraq War destabilized Iraq, Syria and the entire region, Obama has an obligation to do more than drop smart bombs.  Expecting the battered Iraqi military, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, or, more bizarrely, Iran’ al-Quds force to defeat ISIS without U.S. ground troops isn’t reasonable.  Kerry said there’s been no change in U.S. policy fighting ISIS regarding “boots-on-the-ground.”  Sen. John M. McCain (R-Ariz.), Chairman of the Armed Service Committee, has urged the White House to supply U.S. ground troops in the fight against ISIS.  While not admitting that Bush’s Iraq War caused the current mess in Iraq and Syria, McCain believes when you analyze the battlefield, U.S. troops are needed to succeed.  Without U.S. boots-on-the-ground, al-Douri believes he has enough firepower to handle the Iraqi military and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

             When the battle for Mosul starts in the near future, Obama should listen to his generals and military experts that believe that the Iraq and Kurdish fighters don’t have the resources to defeat ISIS.  Since the U.S. caused the mess in the first place, it only makes sense that the U.S. play a bigger role in defeating ISIS.  Relying on Jordanian retaliatory strikes aren’t enough to dislodge a determined enemy with enough popular backing and military prowess to keep fighting.  No one wants to see more U.S. soldiers lose their lives in Mideast conflicts.  But since Bush caused the current mess, it’s up to Obama to clean it up, not pass it onto the next president, whether Democrat of Republican.  While there’s nothing wrong with fulfilling campaign promises to end the war, there’s something very wrong with ignoring sound U.S. foreign policy of defeating dangerous terrorists threatening the civilized world.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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