Obama: Iraq Troop Withdrawal Not My Responsibility

by JASmius

<sigh>:

Barack Obama now says predecessor George W. Bush and his administration were responsible for the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, according to the Washington Times.

Despite couching the "full removal of U.S. forces from Iraq" as the White House’s having made good on a 2008 Obama promise to do just that — it was a key talking point in his campaign speeches — the president is now back-stepping, according to the Times.

"Now, however, with the terrorist force the Islamic State running roughshod through Iraq, capturing key territory, slaughtering Christians and promising to 'raise the flag of Allah at the White House,' Mr. Obama has begun to adjust the narrative," Ben Wolfgang of the Times wrote. [emphasis added]

Kind of like how I "adjust my bowels" after a trip to a Mexican smorgasbord.

The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack wrote that Obama made troop withdrawal a key platform issue in his 2012 re-election bid, quoting from a foreign policy debate between Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Obama "told the American people he didn’t support leaving any troops in Iraq," wrote McCormack.

"Every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong," Obama scolded Romney in that debate. "You said that we should still have troops in Iraq to this day."

Otherwise known as "linear bipolarity".  Isn't that right, Barry....aaaaaaand Barry?

Incidentally, his pinprick airstrikes are not and will not make a damn bit of difference in stopping ISIS, says....his own Obamagon:

U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) ordered by President Barack Obama last week will not weaken the group's overall terrorist capabilities, despite slowing its advance, a senior U.S. military official said.

"We assess that U.S. airstrikes in northern Iraq have slowed ISIL's operational tempo and temporarily disrupted their advances toward the province of Erbil," said Army Lieutenant General William Mayville, Joint Chiefs of Staff director of operations, according to the Hill....

I hope he's near retirement age.

"What I expect [ISIS] to do is look for other things to do, to pick up and move elsewhere. So I in no way want to suggest that we have effectively contained or that we are somehow breaking the momentum of the threat posed by [the group]," he said.

You also aren't breaking the momentum of disastrous media coverage that is goading your boss to ridiculously try to blame this debacle on his predecessor like he does everything else he screws up.

And this one is going to charge a heavy, heavy price:

Experts are warning that the threat ISIS poses to the United States should not be underestimated, and that the group may be capable of launching attacks on the U.S. mainland.

ISIS is "attracting Americans to their team" and is "the sexy group to join," Thomas Sanderson, co-director of the Transitional Threats project at the Center for Security and International Studies, told the Hill.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said Friday that ISIS had been focused on recruiting fighters to send to the West to "attack us in our backyard."

"The intent [to attack the United States] is there and we are concerned the capability is growing," a senior U.S. official said Monday, according to the Hill. The official was not identified by name.

Probably because that "senior U.S. official" is not near retirement age.

But let not your hearts be troubled, my friends.  Barack Obama is devoting his divine omniscience to solving the problem on the vacation he solemnly promised never to take.