Had he done this in Iraq, ISIS would be the JV

Flopping Aces ^ | 03-25-15 | DrJohn

[Starman417]

Foreign policy-wise, Barack Obama has been consistently wrong about pretty much everything. Nothing symbolizes Obama foreign policy fecklessness more than Yemen. Just a few months ago Obama pointed to Yemen as a model of his foreign policy success and it has collapsed.

Those in the know have long pleaded with Obama to listen to the commanders on the ground.

Not Obama.

In large part because his advice was being ignored, Gen. Stanley McChrystal was critical of Barack Obama in a Rolling Stone article written by Michael Hastings. McChrystal was fired, Hastings is dead.

In a NY Times article describing McChrystal's termination Obama uttered something that is ironic for a man who thrives on division and whose power derives entirely from pitting one group against another:

“I welcome debate, but I won’t tolerate division,”

McChrystal corrected surmised that Obama wanted out of the wars more than he wanted to win them:

McChrystal and his inner-circle officers have spent much of the past decade either at war or in some of the Pentagon's most demanding staff positions. The grinding deployments have fueled tension between the White House and the military that dates to the Afghan strategy review last fall. Some military officials, including many on McChrystal's staff, interpreted the president's decision at the time to impose a deadline on the U.S. troop surge as a sign that the administration wasn't serious about winning the Afghan war.

Obama pledged America that all troops would be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

President George Bush warned that removing all troops from Iraq prematurely would have catastrophic consequences:

To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready … would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we’d allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.

Barack Obama consistently opposed anything that the military sought to win in Afghanistan.

The next month, General McChrystal was surprised when James L. Jones, Mr. Obama’s first national security adviser, told him that the Obama administration would not consider sending more forces until the effect of arriving units could be fully evaluated.

That contradicted the guidance that General McChrystal had received from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that he should submit an assessment in August of the additional forces that might be required, he writes.

At an Oct. 8, 2009, video conference with Mr. Obama’s National Security Council, differences again emerged when General McChrystal outlined his goals: “Defeat the Taliban. Secure the population.”

That prompted a challenge by a Washington-based official, whom General McChrystal does not name, that the goal of defeating the Taliban seemed too ambitious and that the command in Kabul should settle instead for an effort to “degrade” the Taliban.

Obama didn't listen. He knows everything better than anyone else, no matter what the issue until things go sideways. After promising he'd remove all troops from Iraq Obama claimed the decision to remove all troops wasn't his.

Iraq was won. Obama said so. He abandoned plans to leave a residual force in Iraq.

[outofsalt]

I now use the term Jihadi Vermin to refer to the JV.