More bad news for Barack Obama, his administration and the Democrats today. More events in Syria tarnish Obama's already failed foreign policy 'legacy'. A legacy of deception, appeasement, weakness and failure.
If the origins of the mustard gas is from Syria, it is just another example of the failure of Obama's chemical weapons agreement with Syria. If the origins of the mustard gas is from Iraq, it is just another example of WMD that were in Iraq. If it was just an improvised weapon, then it highlights the fact that the Obama administration also aided ISIS to fight Assad in Syria by moving arms from Benghazi, Libya through Turkey to their destination in Syria. This chemical weapon attack by ISIS in Syria was bad news, especially for Obama and the Democrats.
On December 16, 1998, President Bill Clinton announced that he has ordered air strikes against Iraq because it refused to cooperate with United Nations (U.N.) weapons inspectors. Clinton’s decision did not have the support of key members of Congress, who accused Clinton of using the air strikes to direct attention away from ongoing impeachment proceedings against him. Just the day before, the House of Representatives had issued a report accusing Clinton of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, in which Clinton had–and then lied about–an illicit sexual liaison with an intern in the Oval Office.
At the time of the air strikes, Iraq was continuing its attempts to build weapons of mass destruction including nuclear, chemical and biological agents. Fearful of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s belligerence, and his penchant for using those weapons against his own people, the U.N. sent in weapons inspectors in 1997. After repeatedly refusing the inspectors access to certain sites, Clinton resorted to air strikes to compel Hussein to cooperate.
Ultimately, the American public’s attention, and that of the press, stayed fixated on Clinton and his battle to save his presidency. Both the air strikes and the impeachment threat proved anti-climactic. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999 and the air strikes on Iraq failed to intimidate Hussein into allowing weapons inspectors full access to Iraq’s weapons facilities.
ISTANBUL — The much ballyhooed Iraqi government operation to capture the central city of Tikrit from the Islamic State has stalled three weeks after it began, amid widespread reports that Shiite Muslim militias and the government are badly divided over tactics and roiled by claims that the militias have engaged in war crimes against the local Sunni Muslim population.
A two-day pause supposedly intended to give the Iraqi government time to bring up reinforcements has stretched into a week, as reports circulate that Iraqi government troops and the militias took heavier than anticipated casualties in their first efforts to dislodge Islamic State fighters. At least 1,000 militiamen died in the early days of fighting, according to some reports, roughly 5 percent of the 20,000 men the militias have committed to the operation.
Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militiamen clash with Islamic State fighters at the frontline in the Qadisiyah neighborhood in Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, March 15, 2015
KHALID MOHAMMED — AP
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/03/20/260513/operation-to-retake-tikrit-from.html#storylink=cpy
Even during the pause, pro-government casualties remain high. A witness in the main government hospital at the nearby city of Samarra said that at least 100 dead or wounded fighters had been brought in over the last four days and that “bodies are everywhere” at the facility. The witness asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
Difficulties with the Tikrit operation underscore how unlikely it is that the Iraqi military will be in any position soon to launch an assault to recapture Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, which fell to the Islamic State last June. A U.S. military officer in February created a stir when he told reporters at the Pentagon that such an assault might come as soon as April. Pentagon officials later acknowledged that Iraqi troops might not be in such a position before the fall.
The war against the Islamic State has killed thousands of fighters and even some mid-level battlefield commanders, but the organization's senior leadership and nerve center remain largely untouched, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials.
These officials and other experts tracking the terror group tell us that the Islamic State's Shura and Sharia councils, the advisory bodies that help inform the major decisions of the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remain intact, notwithstanding one close call in November for Baghdadi. Although airstrikes and military campaigns have killed several regional administrators and designated “governors,” the Islamic State has quickly replaced them and maintains its command-and-control capabilities.
Al-Qaeda's HeirsThis assessment of progress against the Islamic State differs sharply from public statements by top Obama administration officials as recently as last month, including Secretary of State John Kerry and retired General John Allen, the president's special coordinator for the coalition against the Islamic State. In February, Allen said that half the group's leaders in Iraq had been killed.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference also in February, Kerry expanded that claim to account for the group’s leadership in Syria as well.
“We’ve disrupted their command structure, undermined its propaganda, taken out half of their senior leadership, squeezed its financing, damaged its supply networks, dispersed its personnel, and forced them to think twice before they move in an open convoy," Kerry said.
Kerry and Allen haven’t since repeated that claim about the group’s senior leadership. U.S. military officials tell us no consensus intelligence estimate supports the claim that half the Islamic State's leadership has been eliminated.
When asked about Kerry's 50 percent claim, Army Captain John J. Moore, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, told us: "We currently don't have a percentage attached to that statistic."
The battle against ISIS in Iraq - Video
Iran plays a key role fighting ISIS while Barack Obama 'leads from behind' ....
The real question is why won't this administration use your resources to defeat ISIS...
The islamic State has an organized 'information and recruitment' campaign on many forms of socialmedia such as Twitter and Youtube to gather all possible support for their wars in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. Government is seeking to counter the messaging. Will the fervent supporters of ISIS or willing recruits even seek out this counter narrative from the U.S. Department of State on the internet ?
Twitter and Youtube are part of the new battle-space. Graphic images sell the new caliphate and soft-core versions are now used by the U.S. government to counter the campaign from ISIS. The State Department tries ThinkAgainTurnAway.
What do the 'experts' think about the new media campaign? (video)
Dick Cheney on Wednesday dismissed criticism of the Iraq war from Bill Clinton, saying the former president also believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
“Well, I usually haven’t looked at Bill for advice. He doesn’t call me very often,” Cheney said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
Cheney’s response follows Clinton’s comments Tuesday in which he slammed the former vice president for Cheney’s own critique of the Obama administration’s handling of Iraq.
“I believe if they hadn’t gone into war in Iraq, none of this would be happening,” Clinton said in an interview with NBC’s David Gregory that will air Sunday on “Meet the Press.” “Mr. Cheney has been incredibly adroit for the last six years or so attacking the administration for not doing an adequate job of cleaning up the mess that he made. I think it’s unseemly.”
Bill Clinton warns of Iraqi WMD and the threat of Saddam Hussein
Clinton added, “And I give President Bush, by the way, a lot of credit for trying to stay out of this debate and letting other people work through it.”
On Fox, Cheney said that Clinton himself acknowledged the possibility of Hussein possessing WMD.
“He also warned about weapons of mass destruction and the possibility that if Saddam had them, which they believed he did, that he would some day use them,” Cheney said.
Clinton, while serving as president, did acknowledge the threat of Iraq’s nuclear program and in December 1998, he ordered the U.S. to strike military and security targets in the country after Iraq no longer cooperated with U.N. weapons inspections.
“Other countries possess weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. With Saddam, there is one big difference: He has used them. Not once, but repeatedly,” Clinton said at the time in remarks explaining the strike, according to a CNN transcript. “The international community had little doubt then, and I have no doubt today, that left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will use these terrible weapons again.”
Clinton also warned that the U.S. must be prepared to use force again if Saddam Hussein took more threatening actions.
“And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them,” Clinton said at the time.
