The U.S. President Talks But It Is Islamic Miliant Groups Like ISIS That Acts

Obama Has The Speech, ISIS Has The Territory -- Major Garrett, National Journal

President Obama told us this would happen. He even said U.S. policy should prepare for it.

Obama did not necessarily see the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria coming or imagine its cross-border pulverizing of Iraqi forces in Mosul and across much of north and western Iraq. He didn’t see great swaths of Syria and Iraq falling into hands of Sunni radicals too bloodthirsty for al-Qaida. Nor did he see ISIS fighters driving U.S.-made military trucks and Humvees or firing U.S.-made weapons with U.S.-made ammunition.

The particulars eluded Obama. They eluded virtually everyone who, after U.S. forces left Iraq, nonchalantly watched Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki intensify his autocratic and divisive ways in Baghdad, alienating Sunni and Kurdish leaders and the towns and territories they represented. Any critic of Obama’s Iraq policy now (the specific grievance being the lack of a U.S. residual force of some undefined number—10,000? 20,000? or 30,000?) must credibly explain how those troops would have redirected Maliki’s arrogant and mistrustful political energies toward consensus or inclusiveness. They wouldn’t have. Period. To pretend so now, after the fact, is fantasy and folly. There’s no time for either. Iraq has had enough of both—its own and imported from Washington.

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My Comment: There are some good points in this post .... and it is also true that President Obama did give a good speech and he did mention last year that today's conflicts were now entering a new era on how they are fought. But where I disagree with Major Garrett's analysis is who he blames for not following through on the President's speech .... in short ....  he directs blame at President Obama's national security team for not following through with President Obama's remarks on the need for the U.S. to develop new strategies to confront regional conflicts like the one that is happening in Iraq today.

Sorry Mr. Garrettt but I disagree .... President Obama's national security team is him .... they think like him, they see the world the same way that he does, they know his objectives, and more importantly .... they know his priorities .... that is why they are in the positions that they are in today. This was not a priority for them because it was not a priority for President Obama .... because if it was .... he would have asked for updates and progress reports on what will be the U.S. strategy to confront these threats. Unfortunately for all of us .... this did not happen .... and looking at how the White House is trying to handle the Iraq crisis today makes me wonder if they have the imagination and insight to actually develop a strategy that will confront these wars and conflicts.