I fully admit to not seeing just how bad Obama would be at his job. I thought the range of outcomes were Jimmy Carter on the one end and Bill Clinton on the other. Bush was Bill Clinton without the vulgarity, but with a dopey foreign policy. Given Obama’s priggishness, I figured he would be some combination of Bush and Clinton. The timid foreign policy of Clinton, the domestic policy of Bush and his own vanity driven moral preening. In other words, not good, but not disastrous.
Wishful thinking on my part.
By 2010 it was pretty clear the guy was a boob, in way over his head. Worse still, he was surrounded by flunkies and coat holders less qualified than him for their jobs. I thought maybe a wave election in the mid-term could be enough to avoid disaster and maybe lay the groundwork for a one term presidency. Then my fellow citizens voted the stupid bastard back in for another term. Now I pray we live through the administration of this uncommonly stupid man.
Of the many stunning revelations to emerge out of the wreckage of Mosul on Wednesday — 500,000 fleeing residents, thousands of freed prisoners, unconfirmed reports of “mass beheadings” — the one that may have the most lasting impact as Iraq descends into a possible civil war is that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria just got extremely rich.
As insurgents rolled past Iraq’s second largest city, an oil hub at the vital intersection of Syria, Iraq and Turkey, and into Tikrit, several gunmen stopped at Mosul’s central bank. An incredible amount of cash was reportedly on hand, and the group made off with 500 billion Iraqi dinars — $425 million.
The provincial governor of Nineveh, Atheel al-Nujaifi, confirmed that the ISIS Islamists had lifted additional millions from numerous banks across Mosul, as well as a “large quantity of gold bullion,” according to the International Business Times, which called it the “World’s Richest Terror Force.”
OK, so maybe no one saw this coming? No such luck. It appears they knew about it and did nothing.
As the threat from Sunni militants in western Iraq escalated last month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider carrying out airstrikes against extremist staging areas, according to Iraqi and American officials.
But Iraq’s appeals for a military response have so far been rebuffed by the White House, which has been reluctant to open a new chapter in a conflict that President Obama has insisted was over when the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011.
The swift capture of Mosul by militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has underscored how the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have converged into one widening regional insurgency with fighters coursing back and forth through the porous border between the two countries. But it has also called attention to the limits the White House has imposed on the use of American power in an increasingly violent and volatile region.
A spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan, declined to comment on Mr. Maliki’s requests. “We are not going to get into details of our diplomatic discussions,” she said in a statement. “The current focus of our discussions with the government of Iraq and our policy considerations is to build the capacity of the Iraqis to successfully confront” the Islamic extremists.
I’m no fan of the War on Terror or the Bush foreign policy, but I’m not an isolationist. Sometimes a little force goes a long way. In this case, bombing the crap out of their camps would cost little and do a lot. How can you not know that?
It took a long time for the chickens from the Clinton era to come home to roost. The seeds of the housing crash were sewn in the Clinton years. The nitwit we have in the White House now makes Clinton look like genius. The unforced errors we see every day from these clowns are stacking up and at some point the whole stinking edifice is going to come crashing down.
We’ll be lucky to escape the Obama year alive.
With respect, I strongly suggest you consider the *other* possibility in the
“is he stupid or evil?”
question. He was born and bred for malice.
No one saw this coming? Really?
I seem to remember Glen Beck had chalk boards
outlining “the players”, and depicting where the Middle East would be “on fire”.
Of course, he was mocked for it, by “experts” who used to have a job, or an audience.
Then there was Dinesh D’Souza who did a good job of explaining Obama’s motivations. I bought several copies of his Documentary “2016 Obama’s America” and passed them around. A good effort. A thought with which he can console himself as he does the maximum time for a “crime” that no one else has ever gone to prison for. But he’s not sentenced yet you say, care to put some money down on that? On Iraq, missing Saddam Hussein yet? In hindsight, obviously in him Iraq got the leader it wanted, or deserved. Maybe we had to slap his hand when… Read more »
“The nitwit we have in the White House now makes Clinton look like genius.”
Nice try but wrong premise. Obama is doing exactly what he said. Fundamental transformation. But no one asked to what? Did they?
You thought he said “Hope & Change”, he said “Rope & Chains”.