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Things are moving very fast in Iraq. Three months ago the country barely got a mention in Cabinet meetings in Whitehall. British forces left in 2011, after 8 troubled years there, and even the Americans had only a very limited presence. Iraq was essentially being left to itself. Today, following the lightning land-grab by the jihadists of Islamic State (IS) who now control roughly a third of Iraq and much of north-east Syria, the West is being drawn reluctantly but inexorably back into the region. Around 500 UK nationals are estimated to have gone to Syria to become jihadists with...

WASHINGTON—Days before the takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul by the militant group calling itself the Islamic State, U.S. intelligence analysts were sharply divided over whether the group would seize the city, according to people familiar with the debate. Although U.S. spy agencies have monitored and warned about the Islamic State over the past year, they often have underestimated the group's ability to make rapid operational gains, U.S. officials said. That was the case a week ago when militants launched a dramatic and successful offensive in Iraq's Kurdish region. The inability of U.S. spy agencies to provide details about...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now that we've had to go back in it's insult to injury with the way Obama's explaining this. Let's go to sound bite seven. This is Saturday morning at the White House. The president's speaking about the Iraq air strikes before getting on the helicopter to fly to Martha's Vineyard. Oh, yeah, and the media is all hot to trot about that. (imitating media) "Oh, wow, it's so cool. Barry's going to the Vineyard. Yeah, we get to go to the Vineyard, think we'll see Skip Gates? Wow, how cool, you think we'll see Larry David? Man,...

A grotesque accusation surfaced in the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday. It is an unconfirmed claim, and is so repulsive that the source of this assertion refused to reveal his or her identity to WFB’s Adam Kredo. It is, nevertheless, conceivable that, as this source claims, President Barack Obama is balking at evacuating American diplomatic personnel from Iraq in order to maintain support among the American left for airstrikes against ISIS targets. “The administration is saying that they’re going to authorize air strikes if ISIS gets close to U.S. personal or stationed personal, which in [our] mind, if there is...

In 2008 then Senator Obama campaigned on the promise of ending the war in Iraq and bringing combat troops home. In 2012, Obama touted that promise as complete (one of the only campaign promises he actually kept) and critics warned leaving Iraq without a residual U.S. force would result in a power vacuum and vulnerable state. Now as the country falls apart and the radical Islamic State army continues its march unchallenged in Iraq, Obama is claiming he wasn't the one who made the decision to pull U.S. combat troops out of the country and that claims to the...

During his statement on the situation in Iraq before leaving for Martha’s Vineyard, President Obama was asked if he regretted pulling the remaining U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. An agitated Obama answered that it wasn’t his decision. In other words, “Bush’s fault”: -snip Obama campaigned on and eventually took credit for and celebrated the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and now it wasn’t his decision?

Not only did we repeatedly hear that al Qaeda was on a “path to defeat” multiple times on the campaign trail in 2012, we also heard President Obama brag about ending the Iraq War and leaving behind a “sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq.” Via CNS News: Obama: 'I Said I End the War in Iraq - I Ended It' Last night, however, after months of ISIS’ bloody rampage in the country, President Obama announced that America is coming to help. Airstrikes on ISIS artillery began Friday.

Iraq is getting a fresh influx of up to 300 U.S. troops. And while they “will not be returning to combat,” as President Obama said Thursday, they will be taking on a role advising their Iraqi counterparts from the sidelines. What’s that mean exactly? Special Operations troops say a big part of the job will likely be providing command-and-control expertise, along with advice on how to integrate ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) feeds to allow for better intelligence-sharing. Command-and-control entails using service members assigned to use communications gear to connect combat troops with higher command, while ISR refers to various...

Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the U.S. shouldn’t provide military assistance to Iraq despite the threat from an Islamist militant group that has captured major cities. [READ MORE] “I agree with the White House’s rejection and reluctance to do the kind of military activities that the Maliki government is requesting, mainly the fighter aircraft to provide close support for the army and also to go after targets,” the former secretary of State said on BBC’s “Newsnight.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reportedly asked the Obama administration to launch airstrikes against militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)....

US President Barack Obama declared on Thursday that short-term military actions will have to be taken in Iraq, following the take-over by an Al Qaeda break-off Islamist terrorist group over large portions of the country. Reuters reported that Obama said he is looking at "all options" as far as helping the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, noting "I don't rule anything out," when asked whether the United States is considering drone strikes or any other action to stop the insurgency. Speaking at the White House while meeting Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot, Obama said there will be "short-term...

On December 18, 2011, the last convoy of US soldiers pulled out of Iraq, ending nearly nine years of war that left almost 4,500 American troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. Marking the end of the combat mission in a speech at Fort Bragg (the same location where George W. Bush had declared war in 2003), President Barack Obama emphasized repeatedly that he was fulfilling his 2008 campaign pledge of an Iraq pull-out, while praising the courage of American soldiers and vowing that Iraqi forces were prepared to assume responsibility for their country’s security. “Of course,” he noted,...

I ended the war in Iraq” is now a standard claim by President Obama. He makes the assertion in every debate and public appearance. The claim is wrong. It’s phony, and it’s made by a politician who tried relentlessly to block America’s most successful strategic operation of the war: the “surge.” On Feb. 5, 2007, and a few weeks later on Feb. 17, Sen. Obama voted against the surge. Among military analysts and historians, the surge of 20,000 additional troops into Iraq during the spring of 2007 is credited with reducing attacks on American troops and sectarian violence by 70...

Now if he'd said the same thing about Iraq a few years before, he would have cred, but today Obama, who appeared with Biden at the WH have none....Obama praised the Iraqi people for passing "an important milestone" Sunday, when millions turned out for national elections despite insurgent attacks that killed more than 30 people. (Video)

Just disregard everything I said, and everything my fellow Democrats said since March 2003 about Iraq.....