FALL OF RAMADI

This is a pivotal turning point showing the failure of U.S. policy and also it is a slap in the face to the U.S. soldiers who died there not to mention the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have been and will be killed.  Here is a summary of reports on Ramadi’s takeover by ISIS (although it may be more than you want to read).  But it does show a wide consensus among policy analysts that the fall of Ramadi is a disaster. Everything the administration has said and done is quickly degenerating in the Middle East.

Democrats before the War Started:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5p-qIq32m8   Before Bush Democrats were arguing that Saddam was a threat.

Stop It, Liberals:  Bush Didn’t Lie About Iraq Having WMDs:  The Daily Caller.  http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/18/stop-it-liberals-bush-didnt-lie-about-iraq-having-wmds/

There is plenty of criticism that can be leveled against George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, but he didn’t deliberately mislead the country about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Obama: Don’t Stay in Iraq over Genocide: NBC News. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19862711/ns/politics-decision_08/t/obama-dont-stay-iraq-over-genocide/#.VVtQrPlVikp  From 2007. 

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

The Painful Loss of Ramadi: From the Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/05/the-painful-loss-of-ramadi/393566/  Washington is arguing that Ramadi's fall is not a problem, but they obviously have to defend the administration's decisions.  

Even as the Islamic State takeover of the capital city of Iraq’s largest province seemed nearly complete on Sunday, the Pentagon continued to argue that the situation was still “fluid and contested.” That assessment was countered by reports that “hundreds of police personnel, soldiers and tribal fighters abandoned the city,” leaving it and a “large store” of American weapons in ISIS hands. The BBC cited a statement “purportedly from IS” claiming that the city had been “purged.”

It was also a development that American officials not only didn’t prefer, but evidently didn’t see coming a month ago, when a senior U.S. official told Foreign Policy it was unlikely that Shiite militias would fight the Islamic State in Anbar. The Iraqi government’s growing reliance on Shiite militias to fight ISIS has the potential to undermine American-trained Iraqi security forces. And the fall of Ramadi despite a U.S. air campaign aimed at blunting ISIS’s momentum shows the limits of the American strategy.

The World Will Blame President Obama if Iraq Falls:  From the National Journal.  http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/the-world-will-blame-president-obama-if-iraq-falls-20140807  Not so sure this will happen.

A decade later and after millions of American dollars, thousands of casualties, and seemingly hundreds of different policies, Iraq is very much broken. Even though he has boasted of "ending" the U.S. role in the war and even though he didn't create the situation, Obama very much owns the mess. And he finds himself on a timetable not of his choosing and very much at odds with his policy.

What Kind of Iraq Did Obama Inherit:  Commentary. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2014/06/19/what-kind-of-iraq-did-obama-inherit/  In 2010 White House officials told Larry King that things were going well in Iraq.  So it is not “Bush’s Fault.”

A fair-minded reading of the facts, I think, shows that when Mr. Obama was sworn in, the Iraq war had more or less been won. Things were fragile to be sure. But the errors that were made during the occupation of Iraq following the fall of Saddam, which were extremely costly, were corrected in 2007. That was when President Bush made what is in my estimation his most impressive decision. In the face of enormous political opposition, with the nation weary of the war, Mr. Bush implemented a new counterinsurgency strategy, dubbed the “surge” and led by the estimable General David Petraeus. It resulted in startling gains.

To sum up, then: post-surge, Iraq was making significant progress on virtually every front. The Obama administration said as much. The president was not engaged or eager to sign a new SOFA. A full withdrawal was the right decision. His own top advisers admitted as much. The president had long argued he wanted all American troops out of Iraq during his presidency, and he got his wish. He met his goal.

Obama’s ISIS Strategy Takes a Hit:  The Hill.  http://thehill.com/policy/defense/242434-obamas-isis-strategy-takes-new-hit

The White House on Monday acknowledged the seizure represents a “setback” but signaled it is unlikely to alter its approach to combatting ISIS, which relies on U.S.-led airstrikes and training Iraqi security forces to fight the ground war. 

Obama’s Middle East Policy is in a State of Collapse:  Powerline.  http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/05/obamas-middle-east-policy-is-in-a-state-of-collapse.php

It seems as though things couldn’t possibly get worse, but they almost certainly will. We are seeing the fruit of a set of policies that were based on the false premise that problems in the Middle East are mostly the fault of the United States. Not only were such policies misbegotten, they have been executed incompetently. The resulting collapse is occurring with sickening speed.

Pentagon:  Islam State on The Defensive, Just not in Ramadi:  Foreign Policy.  http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/05/18/pentagon-islamic-state-on-the-defensive-just-not-in-ramadi/  The Pentagon spins the situation, but where do we have ISIL on the “defensive”?—Mosul has also fallen within the past year.  What will happen if Baghdad falls?  The Pentagon is shifting the blame to Iraqi leaders, but the administration got rid of all of Bush’s Iraqi leaders for these guys who they are now saying a bad leaders. Go figure.

Bob Gates:  “U.S. Has no Middle East Strategy “at all”: Politico.  http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/robert-gates-us-no-middle-east-strategy-118083.html   Gates says the US is playing it “day by day”—this is not a strategy!  What could go wrong?

Susan Rice:  With Ramadi’s Fall, “a long slog” ahead against ISIL:  USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/19/capital-download-susan-rice-isis-iran/27536981/ An administration official admits that this is not a good situation, but she has not solutions.

ISIS capture of Ramadi renews criticism over US troop pullout, airstrike strategy:  FoxNews.  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/19/islamic-state-capture-ramadi-renews-concerns-about-us-foreign-policy-left/

The Islamic State’s capture of the Iraqi city of Ramadi is sparking renewed criticism of Obama administration policies in the region -- from the decision to withdraw virtually all U.S. troops in 2011 to the current anti-ISIS strategy that relies mostly on airstrikes.

White House Steps Up Warnings About Terrorism on US Soil:  Los Angeles Times.  http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-terror-threat-20150518-story.html#page=1 If the US can’t stop ISIS in Iraq, how is it going to stop ISIS in the US?