{"id":51349,"date":"2014-06-17T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=51349"},"modified":"2014-06-16T19:25:09","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T23:25:09","slug":"oh-yes-he-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=51349","title":{"rendered":"Oh, yes he did…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colin Kahl writes in Politico that “No, Obama Didn’t Lose Iraq<\/a>“. Of course, Mr. Kahl tries to explain how much the Obama Administration tried to hammer out a status of forces agreement (SOFA) with the Maliki Administration. But all you need to know about Mr. Kahl’s explanation is this;<\/p>\n

Here are the facts.<\/p>\n

As the senior Pentagon official responsible for Iraq policy during the first three years of the Obama administration, I….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obama “losing Iraq” happened this year, so Mr. Kahl is irrelevant. He wasn’t working at the White House in January when Fallujah fell to al Qaeda. I’m a little cautious about using the term “losing [anywhere]” when talking to Democrats because when the Republicans blamed Democrats for “losing China” in the 40s, we got the Vietnam War from them in the 60s to prove they are the “national security party”.<\/p>\n

But back to Fallujah. What did the Obama Administration do when Fallujah fell? No, it’s not just you, I missed their reaction, too. They talked about giving the Iraqis weapons and some intelligence assistance, but it never really happened – in the six-freaking-months since Fallujah fell. It should have been a hint that bad times were ahead for the Iraqi government, and that they needed help now. But here we are six months later and Obama tells us how they’re going to work on the problem this past weekend…while he’s golfing in Palm Springs hoping the problem will go away.<\/p>\n

Foreign policy is hard, national security is hard…it’s not like you can pay off the various sides with taxpayer money, like you can with domestic policy. <\/p>\n

There should have been a plan waiting for this weekend, one where the president turns to his National Security Advisor and says “Activate Operation Unfuck”, you know like those presidents on “24” or in Tom Clancy novels do, not “Activate Palm Springs Resort Weekend While I Try To Forget About The Number of Lives That Are Lost While I Golf”.<\/p>\n

This Administration had a plan for shoving Obamacare down our throats. They had a plan to screw vets out of our healthcare. They had a plan to destroy the Defense Department, but their only plan in Iraq, and now Afghanistan, was no plan at all – it was a rush for the exits while making empty promises. <\/p>\n

So, yeah, Colin Kahl, explain that. If the Obama Administration had launched drones or cruise missiles or fighters at al Qaeda back in January, we wouldn’t be having this discussion today. No, I wouldn’t have liked it, mainly because the Obama Administration failed to adequately negotiate with the Maliki regime four years ago, but at least Mosul and Tikrit wouldn’t be in the “win” column for al Qaeda, which will only encourage them, regardless of how the next few weeks work out. <\/p>\n

By the way, in case you missed it, yesterday, the Obama Administration said they’d send 100 Marines and soldiers to reinforce security at the Green Zone in Baghdad, but late last night, it grew to 275 pacs<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Statement by the Press Secretary on the War Powers Resolution Report for Iraq<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, consistent with the War Powers Resolution, the President transmitted a report notifying the Congress that up to approximately 275 U.S. military personnel are deploying to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The personnel will provide assistance to the Department of State in connection with the temporary relocation of some staff from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to the U.S. Consulates General in Basra and Erbil and to the Iraq Support Unit in Amman. These U.S. military personnel are entering Iraq with the consent of the Government of Iraq. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad remains open, and a substantial majority of the U.S. Embassy presence in Iraq will remain in place and the embassy will be fully equipped to carry out its national security mission. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colin Kahl writes in Politico that “No, Obama Didn’t Lose Iraq“. Of course, Mr. Kahl tries … Oh, yes he did…<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}