Posted on 03/28/2016 10:02:39 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan admitted during his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that George Bush had decimated ISIS and that the terrorist group had grown by as much as 4,400 percent under Barack Obama.
CSIS hosted John Brennan on March 25, 2016.
The American Enterprise Institute reported:
In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies yesterday, CIA director John Brennan made a startling admission: The Islamic State was “decimated” under George W. Bush and had just “700-or-so adherents left” following the surge in Iraq. Said Brennan:
[ISIS] was, you know, pretty much decimated when US forces were there in Iraq. It had maybe 700-or-so adherents left. And then it grew quite a bit in the last several years, when it split then from al-Qaida in Syria, and set up its own organization.
But in September 2014, a CIA analysis found that:
[ISIS] can muster between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria … This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity, and additional intelligence.
This means that, by the CIA’s own estimate, ISIS has grown on President Obama’s watch from just 700 fighters to between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters.
That is an increase of between 2,700 and 4,400 %.
Moreover, Brennan tacitly acknowledged that the Obama administration had underestimated the ISIS threat. At CSIS, Brennan declared that:
Not content to limiting its killing fields to Iraqi and Syrian lands, and to setting up local franchises in other countries of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, ISIL has developed an external operations agenda that is now implementing … with lethal effect.
ISIS didn’t exist during George W Bush’s presidency.
wow. someone actually told the truth about the bushies’ track record against terrorism.
I’m sure it won’t fly here on FR. my prediction is that someone posts obamite talking points in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
...my thoughts exactly
people like to insist that it did, although it was a nearly nonexistent organization that no one knew about or cared about. as a practical matter, and as measured by it’s influence or effects, it didn’t exist.
That was my thought, too. Never heard of it before Obama abandoned freedom seekers in Iran early in his reign, undermined non-extremists in Eqypt, killed off all non Brotherhood opposition in Libya and murdered Khadaffi, and armed the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria.
Bush made mistakes but during his presidency, the dominant power in the Middle East was the United States. We could react to any threat in the region. We were respected and were the dominant voice in any debate. Within 8 years, Obama squandered it and in doing so, he created such a vacuum that evil, savage powers like ISIS were allowed to blossom and grow into regional threats. And Obama’s response has been to either minimize the threat or clumsily try to handle it with actions that were ineffective and that further diminished our standing. Now we are sidelined and no one takes us seriously. For the first time in probably 60 or 70 years, no one in the Middle East takes the US seriously. That’s quite an accomplishment for Obama and his two Secretaries of State — money-grubbing Hillary and arrogant, stupid John Kerry.
It was called Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Right. Never heard of ISIS until Obama called them the JV Team.
In other words... an important Key Performance Indicator for Barack Hussein has been achieved!
Right. Never heard of ISIS until Obama called them the JV Team.
ISIS refers to obama as the JV Team..
Isn’t that the same CIA that insisted “WMD in Iraq was a slam dunk??? Hm.......... Home truth is real simple.
George the Compassionate went to war w/Iraq over a non-existent threat. Moreover, following the earlier Iraq/Iran War; Saddam Hussein buried his Air Force in sand bunkers north of Mosul to prevent Israel and/or the USAF from destroying it. Further he never had any rocket capability to deliver any kind of mass destruction. None.
The Anatolian Plain reaching down to the Euphrates/Tigris Valley was the site of hundreds of small Christian Communities that thrived during the late Roman Empire till our time. These communities are now being systematically annihilated as a direct consequence of the Iraq war which set the always volatile Middle East on fire. Remember that the next time someone insists that a colossal moron like Bush was right about Iraq.
They were still there.
They’ve been there for centuries (read history)
They will always still be there.
At various times in history they were suppressed ... by dictators or foreign powers .... but at no point were they ever gone.
Yes it did. It has always been in the region ... for centuries ... in various forms. It did not just spring up out of the ether after Bush left office.
Good point
” The Islamic State was “decimated” under George W. Bush and had just “700-or-so adherents left” “
If I.S. were “decimated”, it’s numbers would only have been reduced by ten percent. Based on the rest of the article, it seems that I.S. was “demolished”, or “devastated” or “nearly destroyed”. I realize this is a lost cause; but, the word “decimated” no longer means anything. I guess you could say it’s been decimated.
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