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Hillary Begins 2016 Bid Ripping Obama
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
August 10, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Ripping 52-year-old President Barack Obama,
68-year-old former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
called the White House foreign policy a “failure,” distancing herself from her
2008 rival. Without saying, “I told
you so,” Hillary told the Atlantic Magazine that Obama’s inexperience has gotten
the country into a real mess, something she warned about in 2008. While Obama will no doubt scream
“ingrate” for tapping Hillary for Secretary of State in 2009, Hillary’s decision
to rip Barack’s foreign policy lays to rest any lingering doubts about whether
or not she’ll run for president in 2016.
Watching events get out of hand in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya and a host
of other hotspots, Hillary charged Obama with incompetence, something she said
repeatedly in the 2008 campaign.
She blamed Obama for the rise of Islamic extremism in Iraq and Syria.
Hillary’s criticism of Obama stems from his inaction in Syria, allowing
Islamic groups to spiral out-of-control, giving rise to the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria, swallowing up large swaths of sovereign territory. “The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were
originators of protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were
secularists, there was ever everything in the middle—that failure left a big
vaccum which the jihadists have now filled,” said Hillary, ripping Barack’s
dithering. When Hillary urged Obama
to intervene in Syria July 21, 2013, she paralleled the thinking of ranking
member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who
urged Obama as far back as March 5, 2012 to help arm his friend Gen. Salim Idris
of the Free Syrian Army. Obama
resisted calls from Hillary and McCain to arm or bomb Syria.
When McCain met with Idris behind enemy lines in Syria May 27, 2013, he
was also pictured in a photo-op with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria, now called just Islamic State.
Back then, Gen. Idris was trying to partner with Islamic groups to work,
as the U.S. once did with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, to topple Syria’s
Bashar al Assad. Clinton agreed
with McCain before she retired as Secretary of State Feb. 1, 2013 that U.S.
forces should be used to topple al-Assad.
After ending the Iraq war Dec. 15, 2011, Obama was in no mood to reopen
another costly Mideast involvement.
Authorizing covert action at McCain’s urging to back Gen. Idris Free Syrian
Army, the U.S. supplied rebel groups with sophisticated U.S. weapons. White House officials deny that U.S.
arms, intended Gen. Idris’s Free Syrian Armny, fell into the wrong hands.
Given all of Obama’s foreign policy mistakes, Hillary had to distance
herself to be seen as a viable candidate.
Tossing a U.S. president of her same party under the bus makes a real
statement about Hillary’s future plans.
Chiming in on Israel, Hillary also distanced herself from Obama and his
70-year-old Secretary of State John Kerry.
Obama and Kerry seem more interested in cozying up to the U.N. than
taking an unambiguous position against Hamas.
“I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to rockets,” Clinton to
the Atlantic. “Israel has a right
to defend itself. The steps Hamas
has taken to embed rockets and command-and-control facilities and tunnel
entrances in civilians areas, this makes a response by Israel difficult,”
explained Hillary, blaming Hamas for any collateral damage, a far cry from
recent State Department statements deploring civilian casualties.
Causing real doubts recently about Obama’s foreign policy, State
Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki joined the U.S. chorus condemning Israel for
collateral damage at a U.N. [UNRWA] school near the Rafah Egyptian border
crossing. “The United States is
appalled,” said Psaki, continuing Israel’s spat with Kerry when he reached out
to anti-Israel Qatar and Turkey to help mediate a ceasefire deal. Answering Kerry and the State
Department, Clinton put the blame squarely on Hamas. Calling the collateral damage
“dreadful,” Clinton backed Israel.
“Ultimately the responsibility rests with Hamas,” said Clinton. “It’s impossible to know what
happens in the fog of war,” suggesting that unfortunately civilians get caught
in the crossfire between warring parties.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Hamas initiated this conflict,” said
Clinton, putting the blame on squarely on Hamas.
Hillary’s pointed criticism of Obama’s foreign policy unofficially
announces her pre-2016 run for the White House.
Recognizing that Obama’s Achilles Heel will be foreign policy, she wants
to distance herself with what she calls his “failures.” Warning about Obama’s inexperience
in 2008 while running against Obama for president, Hillary can now say she told
you so about Barack’s inexperience.
Watching events around the globe spiral out of control raises the public’s
anxiety, especially over Washington’s abysmal relationship with Moscow. Proving she strongly backs Israel,
Hillary puts distance with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who
routinely pressured Israel into making concessions to Palestinians. Aligning herself with McCain puts
Hillary into the conservative foreign policy camp aimed at appealing to
crossover Republicans and independents in 2016.
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