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Fingers Point at Obama for Rise of ISIS
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
October 28, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Watching the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
steamroll parts Iraq and Syria in 2014 has fingers waving at 52-year-old
President Barack Obama. Now that
the U.S. is officially in an air war with ISIS, there’s plenty of blame to pass
around, the lion’s share directed to Barack.
White House and Pentagon officials worked feverishly with Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki to fashion a continuation agreement beyond the agreed
upon Dec. 15, 2011 date to end the war.
Al-Maliki stubbornly refused to give the Pentagon the necessary immunity
document to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the official end date. When that didn’t happen, the White House withdrew all U.S. forces, leaving the
questionable Iraq military to manage growing security concerns. Insisting the White House “did
almost nothing,” former Iraq Amb. James Jeffrey [2010-2012] pointed fingers at
the president.
Jeffrey fails to mention that al-Maliki’s armed forces were so
infiltrated with Sunni insurgents that they were doomed to fail protecting Iraqi
security once the U.S. pulled out.
“The administration not only was warned by everybody back in January, it
actually announced that it was going to intensify support against ISIS with the
Iraqi armed forces. And it did
nothing,” said Jeffrey, overlooking the fact that Iraq’s military was
infiltrated by Sunni insurgents.
Speaking on PBS’s “Frontline’s” the “The Rise of ISIS,” Jeffrey blasted the
White House, knowing, full-well, there was nothing the White House could do to
save Mosul short of re-starting the Iraq War.
ISIS’s strategic military success stems from former Saddam Hussein
dead-enders, carving up remote areas before the final assault on Baghdad. Jeffrey knows giving more cash to
al-Maliki was throwing money down a rat hole.
Jeffrey argues on PBS that had Obama given more money to Syrian rebels it
would have stopped ISIS from seizing more territory in Iraq and Syria. Obama did provided cash and weapons
to Free Syrian Army’s Brig. Gen. Salim Idris at the urging of U.S. Sen. John
McCain. When the arms fell into the
hands of rebel groups connected to al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front and ISIS, the FSA
fired Idris Feb. 17, 2014. Obama
showed appropriate skepticism proving cash-and-arms to so-called “moderate”
rebel groups, all with different objectives.
Rebel groups in Syria all seemed focused to evicting Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad for different reasons.
Most Sunni insurgent groups seized the opportunity to topple a Shiite
regime, replacing it with an extremist Sunni government. Despte coming from oppositie sides
of Islam, Saddam and Bashar shared the fascist Baathist military ideology.
When you get beyond all the smoke-and-mirrors about ISIS, it’s comprised
of Saddam’s former Baathist military cronies:
Those same Revolutionary Guards that tore off their uniforms and jumped
into the Euphrates river to elude advancing U.S. troops. There’s no better recruiting tool than selling ISIS as a new Islamic state, when, in
reality, it’s another fascist attempt to seize land. “I think we made the wrong decision
in not providing assistance to the rebels,” said former Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta. Panetta forgets the failed
help given to Idris and Free Syrian Army. Panetta surely knows that giving military help to questionable rebel groups would
backfire on U.S. interests. Showing
military prowess beyond any Islamic terror group, ISIS is a front for Saddam’s
former Baathists seeking to retake Baghdad.
Without U.S. ground troops, ISIS may get its wish.
Syria’s civil war gave Saddam’s dead-enders a perfect opportunity to
seize territory in areas undefended by al-Assad’s military. Infiltrated by Sunni insurgents,
al-Maliki also couldn’t defend Iraqi territory too far from Baghdad, giving ISIS
easy pickings. Blaming the rise of
ISIS on al-Maliki’s failure to placate Sunnis makes no sense. Al-Maliki’s biggest problem involved
too much infiltration by Sunni insurgents into his security services. Had Obama given more cash or
military help to al-Maliki it wouldn’t’ have stopped ISIS from seizing land in
remotes parts of Iraq. If anything,
the Pentagon supplied too many weapons to al-Maliki’s military, making it ripe
for the taking by ISIS. ISIS
formidable arsenal stems from over-supplied Iraqi units, abandoned when fleeing
from ISIS. Only 800 ISIS militants,
led by Saddam’s former Revolutionary Guards, seized Mosul June 10.
Once Obama decided to start air strikes against ISIS Aug. 8 in Iraq and
Syria it opened up a can of worms.
Promising to “destroy” ISIS, the president’s current strategy, while helping,
can’t get the job done. “No, I’m
not an optimist,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin
Dempsey, referring to Obama’s air war against ISIS. While air strikes stopped ISIS from
committing genocide against Iraq’s ancient Yazidis at Mount Sinjar and retaking
the Mosul dam, most military experts like Demsey believe that ground troops are
inevitable. “Every campaign’s
assumption have to be revisited as the campaign evolves. Some of these assumptions are no
doubt going to be challenged,” referring to the current air strikes that can
only go so far. Once November’s
midterm elections determine control of the U.S. senate, Obama will be in a
better position to reassess U.S. strategy.
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