Category Archives: Iraq
Religious Freedom
Religious freedom has been taking a beating.
A National Review editorial last week made the point that during the Clinton administration Democrats in Congress felt the Supreme Court had too narrow a view of religious liberty. As a result the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Clinton.
Along comes the Affordable Care Act (ACA), …which empowered the Obama administration to issue regulations that burdened a religious liberty..
This leaves Democrats in a political pickle. They passed a law to protect religious freedom, but they do not desire to protect religious freedom when doing so interrupts their risible war-on-women soap opera.
Senator Udall, in his rhetoric, has been particularly dishonest about this, characterizing the Hobby Lobby decision as mandating that women “have to ask their bosses for a permission slip to access common forms of birth control.” In fact, the decision does no such thing: Hobby Lobby has nothing to do with the right to do anything, but rather with the right to not do something.
Elsewhere on the religious freedom front, the Islamic State of Iraq has ordered Christians to either pay jizya (a religious tax), convert to Islam, or die.
Boots on the Ground
President Obama is fond of insisting he won’t put boots on the ground. Even when no one is asking. But now he’s putting 275 pairs of “boots on the ground” to protect American assets as the Iraqi army melts away before ISIS terrorists. Here’s Dick Cheney in a controversial WSJ op-ed last week:
Watching the black-clad ISIS jihadists take territory once secured by American blood is final proof, if any were needed, that America’s enemies are not “decimated.” They are emboldened and on the march… When Mr. Obama and his team came into office in 2009, al Qaeda in Iraq had been largely defeated, thanks primarily to the heroic efforts of U.S. armed forces during the surge. Mr. Obama had only to negotiate an agreement to leave behind some residual American forces, training and intelligence capabilities to help secure the peace. Instead, he abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
Cheney goes on to call Obama a fool. It’s hard to argue.
In the face of this threat, Mr. Obama is busy ushering America’s adversaries into positions of power in the Middle East. First it was the Russians in Syria. Now, in a move that defies credulity, he toys with the idea of ushering Iran into Iraq. Only a fool would believe American policy in Iraq should be ceded to Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror… American freedom will not be secured by empty threats, meaningless red lines, leading from behind, appeasing our enemies, abandoning our allies, or apologizing for our great nation—all hallmarks to date of the Obama doctrine. Our security, and the security of our friends around the world, can only be guaranteed with a fundamental reversal of the policies of the past six years.
On the other hand, Kirsten Powers, still blames Bush.
She says none of this would have happened if Saddam Hussein were still around. “At least he was secular by Arab standards”. That’s hard to argue too. Note for next cartoon: Saddam – “Miss me yet?”
Personally I’m 0 for 2 on wars with Iraq. I was against the first one. When Saddam invaded Kuwait I figured both sides wanted to sell us oil and it wasn’t worth breaking things and killing people over which one got to do it. Besides, April Glaspie may have given Saddam reason to think he had a green light on rape and pillage in Kuwait.
As it turned out, Saddam had been stockpiling weapons of mass destruction before the first Iraq war. In light of that , and in the shadow 9/11, I was in favor of the second Iraq war. That put me in the same boat as Kerry, Hillary, and most of the rest of the Democratic leadership. The difference is I didn’t switch sides when WMD weren’t found in Iraq. Once you’re in a war it’s still better to win than lose. That’s where I admire Bush – that and his ability to draw pictures in the bathtub. He didn’t give up on the sacrifices made in Iraq, even though just about everyone else did – Dems and Republicans alike. He found Petraeus and won the war.
War is Ending
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) apparently did not get the memo from President Obama that “war is ending”. ISIS is too violent even for al Qaeda. The group is leaving a trail of heads, removed with dull knives from policemen and soldiers, as it storms though Iraq toward Baghdad. Not a problem. As Daniel Henninger said this week,”Barack Obama is fiddling while the world burns”.
Barack Obama is fiddling while the world burns. Iraq, Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Nigeria, Kenya, Syria. These foreign wildfires, with more surely to come, will burn unabated for two years until the United States has a new president. The one we’ve got can barely notice or doesn’t care.
West Point Speech
The president gave the commencement address at West Point this week. The speech apparently didn’t have enough trigger points or insensitive comments to get him thrown out. The graduating West Point cadets tolerated their commander’s speech but didn’t give him a very rousing response. Quiet as a mouse according to Krauthammer.
West Point
Patching up his previous comments, Obama insisted he believes in American exceptionalism with every fiber of his being. But just because we are strong like hammer doesn’t mean everyone else is a nail. We must lead by example. Presumably North Korea, Syria, and Iran will follow. It was a little confusing.
Dick Cheney was not convinced.
JV Terrorism
Ever since he killed Osama bin Laden President Obama has insisted Al Qaeda is beaten and on the run. Except that al Qaeda affiliated terrorists are now instituting islamist rule in Fallujah and Ramadi, two cities liberated by the American military in 2004. In Syria al Qaeda beheads Muslims and infidels alike. And then there was the matter involving Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi.
JV Terrorism
In his New Yorker interview Obama dismissed all this as JV team terrorism.
The hunt goes on to protect the Winter Olympics from Black Widow terrorism.
Update:
Here’s a link to Stanford Professor Victor Davis Hanson’s essay “Obama’s Recessional” in which he identifies the Obama Doctrine as American withdrawal from the world:
Summed up, the Obama Doctrine is a gradual retreat of the American presence worldwide — on the theory that our absence will lead to a vacuum better occupied by regional powers that know how to manage their neighborhood’s affairs and have greater legitimacy in their own spheres of influence…
For Obama, America abroad is analogous to the 1 percent at home. We need not squabble over the reasons why the wealthiest Americans enjoy unequal access to the things money can buy, or why America, of all nations, finds itself with unmatched global clout and influence. The concern is only that such privilege exists; that it is unfair; that it has led to injustice for the majority; and that it must be changed…
Just as the United States would be a lot better place if a few million were not so rich, so too the world would be better off if the United States — and to a lesser extent Europe — were not so powerful and interventionist.
