Op-Ed: Post 9/11, the US jumped from the Middle East frying pan into the fire

Obama is following the worst recommendations of the ISG, a group created by Bush, who rejected their ideas. They wanted to help the opposition in Mideast countries depose dictators. Obama decided to replace those secular dictators with Islamists.

In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration struggled to define the enemy and to decide how to defeat it. Even though 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and the Saudis were involved in the planning and financing of the attack, President Bush allowed the Saudis to fly out of the country in the next 24 hours when all other air traffic had been shut down.

No doubt that Bush had decided to maintain good relations with the Arab world, and Saudi Arabia particularly, just as the US had done for half a century. This policy led Bush to say on Sept 17, 2011 to the Islamic world, â€œThe face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war,â€ in a speech as sycophantic as any President Obama has ever delivered.

On a different policy tack, Bush said on the evening of 9/11, â€œWe will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.â€

On Sept 20/11 Bush spoke to the Joint Houses of Congress emphasizing both approaches:

â€œThe enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.

Another idiot piece of drivel by “Do Nothing” choir.

ISIS was virtually exterminated in 2010. It was down to a few hundred fighters and almost all it senior leadership killed or captured. Then, because he had to “end Bush’s war’ before he ran for re-election, Obama engineered a complete withdrawal from Iraq instead of letting the US Military finish the last 5% of the job it had mostly completed.

US, following the “Do nothing” choir’s strategy ran away from Afghanistan in 1989-got Bin laden and 09-11 and went back in 2001.

US, Listening to the Do Nothings-Ran away from Iraq-Kuwait in 1991 had to go back in 2002

in 2011, the Do Nothings got their way again and the US ran away from Iraq. Now we get to go and and deal with the most serious Islamic Terrorist threat yet, ISIS.

As Islamic State of Iraq, 2006â€“13
Main article: Islamic State of Iraq

According to a study compiled by United States intelligence agencies in early 2007, the ISIâ€”also known as AQIâ€”planned to seize power in the central and western areas of Iraq and turn it into a Sunni caliphate.[86] The group built in strength and at its height enjoyed a significant presence in the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Diyala and Baghdad, claiming Baqubah as a capital city.[87][88][89][90]

The Iraq War troop surge of 2007 supplied the United States military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed.[91]

Between July and October 2007, al-Qaeda in Iraq was reported to have lost its secure military bases in Al Anbar province and the Baghdad area.[92] During 2008, a series of US and Iraqi offensives managed to drive out AQI-aligned insurgents from their former safe havens, such as the Diyala and Al Anbar governorates, to the area of the northern city of Mosul.[93]

By 2008, the ISI was describing itself as being in a state of “extraordinary crisis”.[94] Its violent attempts to govern its territory led to a backlash from Sunni Arab Iraqis and other insurgent groups and a temporary decline in the group, which was attributable to a number of factors,[95] notably the Anbar Awakening.

In late 2009, the commander of US forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, stated that the ISI “has transformed significantly in the last two years. What once was dominated by foreign individuals has now become more and more dominated by Iraqi citizens”.[96] On 18 April 2010, the ISI’s two top leaders, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, were killed in a joint US-Iraqi raid near Tikrit.[97] In a press conference in June 2010, General Odierno reported that 80% of the ISI’s top 42 leaders, including recruiters and financiers, had been killed or captured, with only eight remaining at large. He said that they had been cut off from al-Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan.[98][99][100]

On 16 May 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was appointed the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq.[101][102] Al-Baghdadi replenished the group’s leadership, many of whom had been killed or captured, by appointing former Ba’athist military and intelligence officers who had served during Saddam Hussein’s rule.[103] These men, nearly all of whom had spent time imprisoned by the US military, came to make up about one third of Baghdadi’s top 25 commanders. One of them was a former colonel, Samir al-Khlifawi, also known as Haji Bakr, who became the overall military commander in charge of overseeing the group’s operations.[104][105] Al-Khlifawi was instrumental in doing the ground work that led to the growth of ISIL.[106]

In July 2012, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement online announcing that the group was returning to former strongholds from which US troops and the Sons of Iraq had driven them in 2007 and 2008.[107] He also declared the start of a new offensive in Iraq called Breaking the Walls, aimed at freeing members of the group held in Iraqi prisons.[107] Violence in Iraq had begun to escalate in June 2012, primarily with AQI’s car bomb attacks, and by July 2013, monthly fatalities exceeded 1,000 for the first time since April 2008.[108]

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