Posted on 06/15/2014 6:31:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The advance of Islamic militants across Iraq has brought fresh criticism for the Obama administration — but may also deliver a grim measure of vindication to one very prominent White House official: Vice President Joe Biden.
In recent months, former officials and pundits questioned and even ridiculed Biden’s foreign policy acumen.
Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates wrote in his memoir that Biden “was wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue of the past four decades.” And former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s new book “Hard Choices” notes that Biden “remained skeptical” about launching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 — and that others in the administration were at odds with Biden. “I thought we should go for it,” Clinton states, a contrast she has also drawn attention to on the road since leaving office.
This week paints Biden’s judgment in a far different light.
Recent events in Iraq call attention to his prediction nearly a decade ago that the war-torn nation was heading towards a break-up along sectarian lines — and to a prescription he offered to try to manage that reality by granting Sunnis, Shia and Kurds greater autonomy over various parts of the country.
In other words: while Biden may have taken a beating repeatedly in recent years for some foreign policy calls he’s made, his judgment on Iraq’s capacity to stay united now looks almost prescient.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
NO ONE is calling for dividing Iraq and Iran and Al Quada...that’s insane that you got that out of the conversation.
Sunni Iraqi s and Shiite Iraqi s are always killing and fighting each other as they represent to factions of Islam. The territorial divide should be areas that Sunni s live and Shiite’s live....along with Kurds and other factions having some place to practice their form of Islam without the “Hatfield and Mccoy” violence on a daily basis.
Yes some of these individuals are part of Al Quada or ISIS/ISOL etc...the extremesit Jhadists, but that’s not what the dividing territories is about. Those terrorists should be destroyed not given a territory!
No. “Sectarianism” is just a convenient, comforting excuse for the fact that Obama has done nothing to stop AQ and its offshoots from gaining one victory after another. Having three or more even weaker smaller states certainly wouldn’t help; in any case, all of these places would have minorities of the other sect, so even if “sectarianism” were the problem, that wouldn’t help. And they would have had their allies in the larger states governed by their particular sect (Iran, anybody?), who would certainly not have been content with the measly little patch of territory their adherents had.
The only thing that would have helped would have been the establishment of a strong civil state governed by the rule of law, which was what we were attempting to do and nearly had done by 2009 - when Obama threw it all away by dumping Iraq. The civil government wasn’t strong enough, the economy wasn’t strong enough, and their military wasn’t strong enough.
A strong, stable, modern Iraq would have served as a barrier to AQ and Iran alike, which was the point of the whole exercise.
A strong, stable modern Iran would have prevented this all to start with.
Thanks, Jimmy Carter.
I thought it an interesting idea at the time...but how is it our place to divide a country? Our job was to rid of Saddam and help ease to a functional democracy. If they chose to do it, so be it, but people worried about our arrogance of power would have a point if we went around doing this.
Plus, this terrorist movement would have just as easily swept across three countries as they have one.
I don’t know about Biteme, but, the British sucked at drawing maps.
I can guarantee you if he was right, it wasn’t his idea...
No. The jihadists who are waging war in Iraq today are NOT Iraqis. They are Syrians, Iranians, American Jihadists, and other international terrorists.
seem to me the British are at fault as they are the one who drew the arbitrary lines in the whole mid east.
“I can guarantee you if he was right, it wasn’t his idea...”
Thanks, I’m just starting my first cup of coffee, on PDT, and I hadn’t formed any good thoughts re Biden.
You just summed it very well.
Yep. Gertrude Bell and her front man, Lawrence of Arabia, drew up the somewhat arbitrary borders in the Middle East. Winston Churchill also played a key role, IIRC.
OH Geez please understand that some Iraqi s are in this fight, it’s SUNNI Muslim vs Shiite Muslim...not a nation issue, it’s a religious sect issue. And any Iraqi army members who were Sunni would not fight ISIS (Sunni)
The jhadists are the MILITANT TERRORISTS like ISIS, who are destroying IRAQ but also attacking other nations citizens like Turks (80 hostages yesterday form Turkey Consulate) or any Shiite Muslims for that matter.
Iran offered to help Iraqi Army as they are mostly Shiite’s (Shia) & ISAS would come after them next.
Biden said, in 2010, “(A unified) Iraq is one of the greatest achievements of this administration.”
But due to blowing this “achievement” with a premature pullout, they give him a mulligan, and revert back to what he said ten years ago.
Which is it? Can’t have it both ways.
The article doesn't mention the Al Qaeda/ISIS problem. It's a Politico whitewash of the primary problem and how it should be addressed.
Yes, Carter was dead wrong on the Shah. Bush 1 and 2 were wrong on Iraq and killing Saddam. Obama is definitely wrong for supporting the elimination of Mubarek, Assad and Qaddafy. If the true goal were for a more stable and prosperous Middle East, then all these Smarty Pants can chalk up an Epic Fail. If we were after the true perpetrators of 9/11, then we would have bombed Mecca. Saudi Arabia, the hotbed of the MB radicals, has funded the chaos from the get-go with the US & UK govt. blessing and active assistance. MB Shills in our Govt. have armed and trained the very enemy who kill and maim our soldiers in battle. The intentional push for WW3 by my own Govt. is escalating rapidly. They are more my enemy than any external enemy could ever be. BTW, I don’t give a rat’s patoot whether Iraq splits into homogeneous sectors or not - that is their business not mine. Meanwhile, get that Keystone pipeline going and Drill, baby, Drill everywhere else.
*Joe Biden solution summation in article “and to a prescription he offered to try to manage that reality by granting Sunnis, Shia and Kurds greater autonomy over various parts of the country.”
SO...NO the comment was about Joe Biden solution and it’s not a political solution, it’s a sectarian solution of placing control in various areas for different ISLAM sects....as I stated.
And the comment I addressed did not appear to understand that.
“Partitioning Iraq would seem a sensible idea”
Only in theory, I suspect only the Kurds would abide by the boarders. The Sunnis and Shiites will always be going for throat of the other. “Boarder? we don’t need no stinking boarder”
I thought he may have been right for once until I read this article:
The Back-Room Deal That Explains The Chaos In Iraq
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-back-room-deal-that-explains-the-chaos-in-iraq-2014-6
The Obama Admin was behind this disaster.
Speaking of the “...growing lore of the group...” this was the victory parade in Mosul:
ISIL/ISIS show off there new arsenal in Mosul 13 June 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAxNZfWmhMQ
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