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Fear of ‘Another Benghazi’ Drove White House to Airstrikes in Iraq
New York Slimes ^ | 8/8/2014 | MARK LANDLER, ALISSA J. RUBIN, MARK MAZZETTI and HELENE COOPER

Posted on 08/09/2014 10:30:16 AM PDT by mojito

On Wednesday evening, moments after finishing a summit meeting with African leaders at the State Department, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff delivered a stark message to President Obama as they rode back to the White House in Mr. Obama’s limousine.

The Kurdish capital, Erbil, once an island of pro-American tranquillity, was in the path of rampaging Sunni militants, the chairman, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, told the president. And to the west, the militants had trapped thousands of members of Iraqi minority groups on a barren mountaintop, with dwindling supplies, raising concerns about a potential genocide.

With American diplomats and business people in Erbil suddenly at risk, at the American Consulate and elsewhere, Mr. Obama began a series of intensive deliberations that resulted, only a day later, in his authorizing airstrikes on the militants, as well as humanitarian airdrops of food and water to the besieged Iraqis.

Looming over that discussion, and the decision to return the United States to a war Mr. Obama had built his political career disparaging, was the specter of an earlier tragedy: the September 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens....

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2012; 201209; 20120911; 2014; airstrikes; benghazi; dempsey; erbil; fearfuldems; iran; iraq; irbil; isis; kurdistan; kurds; lebanon; libya; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; obama; usembassy; waronterror; yazidis
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More bad news, Barry?
1 posted on 08/09/2014 10:30:16 AM PDT by mojito
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To: mojito

I’m shocked! I thought he would have learned about it in the newspaper!


2 posted on 08/09/2014 10:34:50 AM PDT by leapfrog0202 ("the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery" Sarah Palin)
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To: mojito
More bad news, Barry?

Is there any other kind for Obama?

When an administration is this incompetent the only good news is no news.

3 posted on 08/09/2014 10:36:26 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: mojito

Riiiiiiiight.

They’re just protecting their phoney-baloney jobs........Bomb a few aspirin factories then declare victory.


4 posted on 08/09/2014 10:37:19 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: mojito

Oh, BS!!

He could care less who dies in the sand ..

as long as he gets a good lie in the sand traps.


5 posted on 08/09/2014 10:39:14 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: mojito

Ebama is completely responsible for this.


6 posted on 08/09/2014 10:40:28 AM PDT by Hoosier-Daddy ( "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.")
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To: All

I tripped over the phrase “summit meeting with African leaders” — what exactly could bring about such a curious cessation of the normal laws of political reality?

Oh right, now I see it.


7 posted on 08/09/2014 10:41:15 AM PDT by Peter ODonnell (Heilery Clinton v Jeb Bush -- just shoot me now)
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To: mojito

Do we know if Obama is actually bombing the militants or just dropping bombs in empty fields?


8 posted on 08/09/2014 10:42:17 AM PDT by DannyTN (I)
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To: mojito

9 posted on 08/09/2014 10:43:14 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Conservatism is the political disposition of grown-ups.)
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To: leapfrog0202

I suspect the Emir learned about the airstrikes already in progress from the Joint Chiefs Chairman and was given the option to own them or to essentially publicly condemn the Yazidis to extermination, something he would surely like to do, but politically very dangerous.


10 posted on 08/09/2014 10:44:51 AM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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To: mojito

They’re spinning like a top on ice. They greatly underestimated and ignored ISIS. Now, they’re trying to imply they’re on top of the problem. This what happens when you don’t pay attention and you do not lead in this world, Obama.


11 posted on 08/09/2014 10:47:55 AM PDT by elhombrelibre (Against Obama. Against Putin. Pro-freedom. Pro-US Constitution.)
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To: mojito

BULL sperm... Benghazi was ON PURPOSE..
It just went sideways when the Democrat media lost control..

Still don’t have control.. and are trying to live it down..
Bully’s just do not know how to do aggressive correctly..
An aggressive bully appears like RAPEING something... and it usually is..

WHY?...... because they are cowards..


12 posted on 08/09/2014 10:51:31 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: mojito

Wow ebama hasn’t mentioned a video yet, which one upset IS?


13 posted on 08/09/2014 10:52:11 AM PDT by ColdOne (I miss my poochie... Tasha 2000~3/14/11))
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To: mojito

Was Obama going to send four dead Americans in by parachute or did he want ISIS to kill them?


14 posted on 08/09/2014 10:52:27 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: elhombrelibre
“In January President Obama told The New Yorker magazine that ISIS, the militant group which has taken control of parts of western and northern Iraq, was like a junior varsity basketball team.

“The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant,” Obama said.”

http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/08/white-house-isis-jv/

15 posted on 08/09/2014 11:03:50 AM PDT by mojito (Zero, our Nero.)
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To: 1010RD
He was going to let ValJar decide. From the link:

“About 8 p.m., the meeting broke up and Mr. Obama again left the White House, an hour late, for a dinner date with his wife and a close confidante, Valerie Jarrett, at an Italian restaurant in Georgetown.”

16 posted on 08/09/2014 11:07:01 AM PDT by mojito (Zero, our Nero.)
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To: elhombrelibre
The US has been so busy destabilizing and toppling legitimate governments, since Clinton and maybe even include George 1 in Iraq that this is what happens. If saving people from genocide doesn't make Putin look bad or be something global oil (and other) interests lust for, it's unimportant.

It seems the DC mentality has stooped so low that they don't know how to respond to true evil. They're probably still trying to figure out what's in it for them and for their corporate globalist sponsors. The rest of the "civilized world" is no better.

JMHO

17 posted on 08/09/2014 11:11:53 AM PDT by grania
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To: mojito

The title...
Why would he fear another Benghazi? Or Fast and Furious? Or IRS scandal? Or NSA scandal?
NONE of these have resulted in “bad things” (real justice) even for those directly responsible/involved, much less him.


18 posted on 08/09/2014 11:18:18 AM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark
even for those directly responsible/involved, much less him.

According to Harry Truman, Obama is directly responsible.

19 posted on 08/09/2014 11:20:05 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves" Month.)
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To: Pontiac

Too many people still blame this administration with incompetence but not enough consider its very actions to be deliberately planned.


20 posted on 08/09/2014 11:30:45 AM PDT by 353FMG
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