Tag: iraq

Quote of the Day, We’re Not The Ones Who Lost This War edition.

Glenn Reynolds, as part of a long (for him) post:

Yes, I keep repeating this stuff. Because it bears repeating. In Iraq, Obama took a war that we had won at a considerable expense in lives and treasure, and threw it away for the callowest of political reasons. In Syria and Libya, he involved us in wars of choice without Congressional authorization, and proceeded to hand victories to the Islamists. Obama’s policy here has been a debacle of the first order, and the press wants to talk about Bush as a way of protecting him. Whenever you see anyone in the media bringing up 2003, you will know that they are serving as palace guard, not as press.

I hate being a broken record on this topic, but I know what happens when we’re not.

Why the Obama administration can’t admit that we’re at war in Iraq and Syria.

So, last week we and the Kurds and the Iraqis – or the Kurds and the Iraqis and us – went and did a hostage rescue mission in Islamic State (IS) territory.  It was, by all accounts, a highly successful mission: hostages were freed, the base the hostages were in was then obliterated by the US Air Force, and ‘we*’ lost only one man to combat (Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler). As combat raids in a war zone go, this one ended very well.

Assuming, of course, you’re allowed to call it ‘combat,’ and you’re allowed to call it a ‘war.’ Which is to say: you’re not a member of the Obama administration. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, courtesy of Andrew Malcolm: Continue reading Why the Obama administration can’t admit that we’re at war in Iraq and Syria.

Let us stop pretending that the Iraq War was the Worst Thing Ever.

(Via Instapundit) This is a pet peeve of mine, and it got triggered by this otherwise not-as-bad-as-it-could-have been article on Obama’s Syria debacle (the NYT prefers the term ‘nightmare’):

American interventionism can have terrible consequences, as the Iraq war has demonstrated. But American non-interventionism can be equally devastating, as Syria illustrates.

Stop. Freeze-frame. Rewind.  Look at those two sentences. Also look at that word ‘equally,’ which means that the author of this piece wants his readers to conclude that there are two separate military situations here, each one of which was, well, equally disastrous. Continue reading Let us stop pretending that the Iraq War was the Worst Thing Ever.

German intelligence agency: Kurds attacked with mustard gas.

As in, last month. The AP article mentioned at the link suggests that the gas – used, of course, by Islamic State, because death cults would find the thought of poison gas congenial – is either left over from the Saddam era (BECAUSE SOME JACKASS IN THE OVAL OFFICE LET ISLAMIC STATE OVERRUN SYRIA), or else was made recently in Mosul (BECAUSE SOME JACKASS IN THE OVAL OFFICE LET ISLAMIC STATE OVERRUN PARTS OF KURDISTAN). I will leave it to my readers to decide which is the more alarming scenario.

By the way: what is going on in Iraq and Syria right now under Barack Obama is what the antiwar movement pretended had happened in Iraq under George W Bush. Personally, I would have preferred that we never actually got to see what all of that would have looked like for real.  Then again, I also would have preferred that the Democrats had elected somebody who knew how to properly fight a war.

Moe Lane

Marvelous: the Islamic State death cult is LAWFUL Evil.

This is a problem.  Chaotic Evil death cults are, of course, horrid: but they also can be slaughtered with relative impunity. Lawful Evil cults, on the other hand, tend to want to stick around for a while. As we are seeing in the Middle East right now.

While no one is predicting that the Islamic State will become steward of an accountable, functioning state anytime soon, the group is putting in place the kinds of measures associated with governance: issuing identification cards for residents, promulgating fishing guidelines to preserve stocks, requiring that cars carry tool kits for emergencies. That transition may demand that the West rethink its military-first approach to combating the group.

Continue reading Marvelous: the Islamic State death cult is LAWFUL Evil.

Syrian Kurds poised to start next stage of Greater Kurdistan?

Mayyyyyybe:

Kurdish fighters in northern Syria say they have captured a key town from Islamic State, just 50km (30 miles) from the group’s headquarters at Raqqa.

A spokesman for the the Popular Protection Units (YPG) said Ain Issa and its surrounding villages were now under the militia’s “total control”.

[snip]

The YPG captured the town of Tal Abyad on the Turkish border last week, cutting a major supply line for IS.

Via Michael Totten. Let’s go take a look at a map. Yellow is Syrian Kurds, slightly darker yellow is Iraqi Kurds, grey is Islamic State (IS), every other color is irrelevant for purposes of this conversation.

Northern Iraq Syria

Continue reading Syrian Kurds poised to start next stage of Greater Kurdistan?

George W Bush patiently explains the facts of life and war to his successor.

Because that is who this advice is aimed at.

The United States will need combat troops on the ground to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), former President George W. Bush suggested in a new interview

“The president will have to make that determination,” Bush said in an interview published Friday with the Israel Hayom newspaper when asked if ISIS could be defeated without ground troops.

“My position was that you need to have boots on the ground,” he said.

Continue reading George W Bush patiently explains the facts of life and war to his successor.

American advisers to Viet… Iraq… expanded to 3,550.

I don’t know what’s more aggravating: that President Barack Obama thinks that a nickel-and-dime re-insertion of troops in Iraq is the smart play here, or that he’s had over a year to come out with a better idea and came up empty. I suppose that this can be one of those ’embrace the healing power of and’ situations. It’s not like we have much choice:

President Obama is deepening U.S. military involvement in Iraq as he searches for a “complete strategy” to train local fighters against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Obama will send as many as 450 military personnel to train and assist Iraqi soldiers and militia forces at Taqaddum military base in eastern Anbar province, part of a broader effort to retake the provincial capital of Ramadi.

Continue reading American advisers to Viet… Iraq… expanded to 3,550.

To reference Diane Duane: Barack Obama needs to be taken everywhere twice.

The second time, to apologize.

I’m sure I’ve said this of the man before. I wish that I didn’t have to.