Posted on 03/20/2015 7:24:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Barack Obama indirectly blamed the foreign policy of his predecessor, President George W. Bush, for the rise of the barbaric and brutal Islamic State terrorist organization in Iraq.
In an interview with Vice News founder Shane Smith released on Tuesday, Obama was asked how the ISIS terrorist group, also known as ISIL or the Islamic State, which has seized large chunks of Syria and Iraq, was able to become "so popular so fast."
Obama responded saying that the group's rise was aided by the U.S. invasion of Iraq that began in 2003 during Bush's presidency.
"Two things," Obama said. "One is ISIL is a direct outgrowth of Al Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion, which is an example of unintended consequences, which is why we should generally aim before we shoot."
Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who served as U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under Bush from 2002 to 2007, told The Christian Post in a Thursday interview that the president is simply looking to find somewhere else to lay the blame.
"I find that an incredible statement," Boykin, who is the executive vice president of the Family Research Council, asserted. "Al Qaeda existed before 9/11. Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden were responsible for 9/11. The fact that Al Qaeda in Iraq, under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi emerged as a major force there is, I think, a ridiculous statement to say that they emerged there because of the invasion or that we created them."
"The reality is that is an Al Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria that is capturing young girls and is killing people. The events in Tunisia were perpetrated by an Al Qaeda affiliate. Did we create that?" Boykin asked. "The answer is no. I think that the president is scrambling for somebody to blame."
Boykin went on to explain that the reason ISIS has gained so much momentum is because of Obama's own "failed foreign policy."
"I think that one of the reasons that we are seeing them gain strength and momentum is because of failed foreign policy that has done nothing to stop them," Boykin argued. "I think [Obama] needs to look internally at the very poor decisions that he has made and the fact that he hasn't had a policy that in anyway has impeded their growth."
In the Vice News interview, Obama offered assurance of his current plan to defeat ISIS with limited U.S involvement and stated that the international U.S.-led coalition will eventually defeat ISIS in Iraq.
"We got a 60-country coalition. We will slowly push back ISIL out of Iraq," Obama contended. "I am confident that will happen."
Although Obama is "confident" in the coalition efforts to defeat ISIS, Boykin feels there is no way ISIS will be defeated under Obama's current strategy.
"It is definitely not going to in any amount of time destroy ISIS, no matter what he says. The pace at which we are pursuing this so-called strategy, we are not going to destroy ISIS," Boykin argued. "The question is, could we destroy ISIS? And the answer is, it is questionable. Could we destroy them if we had an all-out campaign against them? It is questionable. But, it is for certain that at the current pace, with the current strategy, we are not going to destroy ISIS."
Boykin offered his own strategy for defeating ISIS and said first the president needs to admit to the religious nature of the group's war.
"To begin with, we start by our president acknowledging that ISIS is a component of Islam and that ISIS is fighting in the name of Islam, that ISIS is motivated by the theology of Islam and identifying who the enemy is and what makes them fight," Boykin stated. "Once we do that, then we engage the Muslim communities around the world, who don't want to be part of this grand jihad. There are many, many Muslims who don't but they sit on the sidelines and they watch to see if we are going to take a stand, if we are going to actually recognize who the enemy is. As long as we continue to deny who the enemy is, those components of the Muslim community that also reject jihad, that rejects sharia, they are going to continue to sit on the sidelines."
Boykin also warned against the United States providing weapons to other Islamic groups and said weapons should only be provided to groups that the United States knows it can trust.
"We [need to] arm our friends, not our enemies," Boykin said. "We don't arm these Islamic groups like the Free Syrian Army and the rebel groups in Libya, we arm our friends like the Kurds and the Christian militias that want to fight for themselves."
Lastly, Boykin said that the United States should equip the U.S. Special Operations Command with everything they need to arm, train and lead trusted militia groups in the fight against ISIS.
IMHO, neither of them had perfect foresight about ISIS. But at the same time, a long time ago people should have let the Middle East fight it out rather than play favorites.
ISIS did not exist until El-Presidente left a void in the Middle East. Even more damaging is that the true “spring” was stomped out when it began to sprout (Iran) giving the crazies a green light.
I’d give it a 20/80 split with Zero winning the lion-share.
It’s obviously Bush’s fault. Nothing that’s happened on Obama’s watch has been the Won’s fault.
Bush would have understood that they weren’t Junior Varsity in Laker’s uniforms because contrary to liberal opinion he was smarter than the 5th grader we have running things now.
Neither, I blame Putin and the Russian mob.
But...
He and Bush, both, were woefully uninformed and misinformed on nearly every damned thing that has happened or that is projected to happen in the middle east cesspool.
I do fault Bush for not taking some of the bullshit that he was fed with a larger grain of salt.
Condi Rice, a most imminently qualified adviser to Bush, was placed at the back of the bus. (To coin a phrase.)
Several other extremely competent advisers were so marginalized by the lame stream media to the point that their effectiveness was muzzled and they were made to look like warmongering hordes of conquering rapists and murderers.
And the destructive policies and downright stupidity of the obama advisors borders on criminal, yet they have been so bolstered by obama-ass kissing media, that they have been put on a pedestal that even obama can't knock them from.
In short, the ignorance, corruption, illegal sympathizing and actions bordering on treason, have made this whole damned mess a much bigger mess than it would have ever been.
Obama (and the only reason his name is capped is because it begins the sentence) is woefully stupid of what it takes to deal with the bad guys of the world.
Hell, he won't even admit they are bad guys...which is one the biggest enabling factors he can do.
We are at the point to where we need a man (yes, by God!, I said a MAN!) in the White House who will not only wave the biggest stick he can find, but also stomp around and cuss the air blue.
And if that big stick happens to land squarely in the face of a few imams and sheiks, and embarrasses a few weak-willed, namby-pamby Prime Ministers...then so be it.
I just wish we had that man in the wings.
I do not think it is Scott Walker...at one time I had hoped it would be Ted Cruz, but...he will suffer meaningless attacks from the left on several things in his portfolio that will render him pretty much ineffective.
Woe is us.
I apologize for the lengthiness of this...I would blog, but then, humblegunner is too sharp for me to do that.
(Just kidding, gunner...don't get your panties in a wad.)
Neither one. This is a religious war between two sects that has been going on for about 1,000 years, giver or take and flares up time and again in history. Read, read, read.
Apparently neither Bush nor Obama have ever read the long sordid history of the region and its blood soaked past.
We had no business getting in the middle of that mess. Saadam was an extremely brutal dictator, but he kept a lid on the simmering religious hatreds in the area. As does Assad. As did Gadafi. You have to have brutal dictators to keep the mayhem in the region to a minimum.
We need to stop “nation building” and “bringing democracy” to this region. It’s a fools errand.
If we find they have done us wrong, hunt down those responsible, kill them and leave.
Same thing is likely to happen in Afghanistan and is happening in Yemen (where we have had minimal involvement). Same stirrings going on in Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Sudan, central asia ....
Read history.
There has been an ISIS like undercurrent and tendency within Islam in the middle east, north Africa and central asia for over 1,000 years. It flares up from time to time. History records all of this.
Rick Perry could pull it off I think.
Jimmy Carter was the Big Screw-up here
In fact a number of Obama’s Community Organizing hit squad were almost killed in an Arab Spring riot they were organizing and inciting in Egypt.
The media, of course, reported they just happened to be caught up by chance in a riot while “on vacation” in Egypt.
That is true, there is only so much you can beat people up over being unable to prevent other peoples actions. The best you can do is to stop building the road to hell.
Dear President Obama,
Please stop digging.
Another question might be: “Who gave the JV team a league of their own?”
Dear would-be President Jeb Bush,
Don’t even THINK about it!
I still think the Russians had a big hand in stirring this pot of perdition stew.
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