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How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
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This article by General James Jones is the second from the highest ranks of the Obama administration, saying the entire Middle East policy of U.S. president Obama was flawed and could lead to dangerous consequences. Gen. Jones, former National Security Advisor to Obama 2009-2010, says the situation today is worse than in 1991 when the U.S. launched Operation Provide Comfort to protect Kurdish refugees in Northern Iraq from Saddam Hussein, with an engagement of about 5 years and 25,000 Allied troops. Jones says the crisis in Iraq and Syria is of an order several times worse than 1991 and at any time since the 2003 invasion, as it involves the setup of a terrorist ISIS state in the heart of the Middle East. What went wrong? Jones says all the warnings from other Middle East nations about Maliki's corrupt policy and sectarianism used to stay in power turned to be true. Even Maliki's own advisors and colleagues say in a separate report by Matt Bradley that Maliki battled not for the Iraqi state but only to preserve his own power. Jones calls the U.S. president's decision not to act in Syria when the "red line" of use of chemical weapons was crossed, the failure to maintain a limited military training presence in Iraq after 2011, and not insisting that Mr. Maliki arm the Kurds, as having gravely aggravated the problem in 2014. Jones calls for arming the Kurds directly with sufficient weaponry for defending their region and providing immediate expanded aid to the Abadi government, appointment of a special envoy to ensure direct and immediate communications with Baghdad and with Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite leaders. He calls also for close air support of Iraqi and Kurdish operations, and an aggressive diplomatic effort to unify the Middle Eastern nations to remove ISIS from the region. Jones says this is the right thing to do in the name of all the Iraqi people yearning for peace, for the U.S. service personnel who made sacrifices in Iraq for 23 years, and for U.S. national security.
Hillary Clinton's (also Panetta, Gates. Gen. Jones) differences with U.S. president Obama on Iraq, Afghanistan and the U.S. role in the world
08/11/2014
Grouped Articles
A Rift in Worldviews Is Exposed as Clinton Faults Obama on Policy
New York Times 08/11/2014
Hillary Clinton, Barbed and Bellicose
New York Times 08/11/2014
New York Times 08/11/2014
With Maliki Out of the Picture, U.S. Prepares to Boost Iraq Aid
Wall Street Journal 08/16/2014
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
Amplified by Social Media, Insider Memoirs Make More Racket
New York Times 10/07/2014
Iraqi opinion on the way forward in 2015 after the Maliki government's sectarian divisions
08/10/2014
Grouped Articles
New York Times 08/10/2014
Nominee to Replace Maliki as Iraqi Premier Is Seen as Less Divisive
Wall Street Journal 08/12/2014
Iraq Crisis: Effort to Aid Kurdish Forces Puts Iran, U.S. on Same Side
Wall Street Journal 08/14/2014
Iraq Crisis: Nouri al-Maliki Quits
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
With Maliki Out of the Picture, U.S. Prepares to Boost Iraq Aid
Wall Street Journal 08/16/2014
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
Shift to new prime minister and president in Iraq as confidence in Maliki collapses
07/25/2014
Faoud Massoum, a Kurdish leader, is selected as new president of Iraq in July 2014, as the process of selecting a new president begins.
Grouped Articles
Iraq Parliament Chooses New President, as Rebel Attack Kills 60
Wall Street Journal 07/25/2014
Iraq Crisis: Nouri al-Maliki Quits
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
With Maliki Out of the Picture, U.S. Prepares to Boost Iraq Aid
Wall Street Journal 08/16/2014
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
New York Times 08/15/2014
Facing Militants With Supplies Dwindling, Iraqi Soldiers Took to Phones
New York Times 09/26/2014
How the Obama administration's policies in Syria, Iraq and towards Iran, have increased sectarian and religious conflict, and have pushed back democracy and economic development in the Middle East
06/10/2014
By allowing reckless intervention by Putin's Russia in Syria, and by its policies in the Middle East after the Arab Spring, the Obama administration has starved the hopes of an entire region heavily oriented towards a young demographic for participatory democracy and economic development, leaving it to descend into religious conflict, and then into sectarian conflict.
Grouped Articles
Sunni Militants Drive Iraqi Army Out of Mosul
New York Times 06/10/2014
Mosul Falls to ISIS, Endangering Iraq’s Democracy
New York Times 06/11/2014
U.S. Scrambles to Help Iraq Fight Off Militants as Baghdad Is Threatened
New York Times 06/12/2014
Veterans Watch as Gains Their Friends Died for Are Erased by Insurgents
New York Times 06/13/2014
Obama Finds He Can’t Put Iraq War Behind Him
New York Times 06/13/2014
Iraqi Shiite Cleric Issues Call to Arms
New York Times 06/13/2014
A detailed account of the events in September 2013 involving Obama, Kerry, Hagel, White House and Congressional officials as president Obama reversed policy on Syria
09/16/2013
Grouped Articles
Inside White House, a Head-Spinning Reversal on Chemical Weapons
Wall Street Journal 09/16/2013
Wall Street Journal 09/16/2013
Saudi Arabia gets forceful on foreign policy - The Washington Post
Washington Post 10/25/2013
Rice Offers a More Modest Strategy for Mideast
New York Times 10/26/2013
Fouad Ajami: When the Obama Magic Died
Wall Street Journal 11/15/2013
‘America Must Always Lead,’ Obama Tells West Point Graduates
New York Times 05/28/2014
The consensus in the Obama administration to support Syria's democracy forces in summer 2011, and the U.S. president's failure to act
08/23/2011
Defense Secretary describes the plans supported by key members of the National Security team to support Syrian democracy forces in the summer of 2011- supported by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Clinton, General Dempsey of the Joint Chiefs, and CIA director Petraeus. The president failed to act because of approaching elections and the general hesitation to act that was displayed since the start of the democracy movement in Tunisia, and then through the movement's spread to Egypt, Libya, followed by Syria. The U.S. failed to grasp an opportunity for the Free World and create goodwill in the Arab world by standing up to its ideals of democracy and freedom.
Grouped Articles
Israel Says Syria Has Used Chemical Weapons
New York Times 04/23/2013
New York Times 04/22/2013
Pentagon Plans for the Worst in Syria
Wall Street Journal 05/07/2013
What if the U.S. doesn’t intervene in Syria? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/09/2013
Why did Mr. Obama overrule his advisers on Syria? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/09/2013
New York Times 05/05/2013
The Obama administration slow response to the situation in Syria
08/23/2011
Grouped Articles
Israel Says Syria Has Used Chemical Weapons
New York Times 04/23/2013
New York Times 04/22/2013
What if the U.S. doesn’t intervene in Syria? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/09/2013
Why did Mr. Obama overrule his advisers on Syria? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/09/2013
New York Times 05/05/2013
Wall Street Journal 08/23/2011
The WSJ on the faltering and indecision of the Obama administration's position on Syria
06/14/2013
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 06/14/2013
Heavy Pressure Led to Decision by Obama on Syrian Arms
New York Times 06/14/2013
Wall Street Journal 09/01/2013
GOP Leader Rallies for Obama Plan
Wall Street Journal 09/04/2013
9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask | WorldViews
Washington Post 09/07/2013
New York Times 09/08/2013
A weak military in Iraq in 2014-2015, split by sectarian divisions and poorly equipped and trained- in the period following U.S. withdrawal
04/28/2014
The failure of Nouri Maliki to bring together Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Sunnis see the Maliki government's anti-terrorist effort as ethnic cleanising, the U.S. is wary of the Maliki government and has refrained from supplying the military, the college setup by the U.S. to train officers remains vacant after the U.S. withdrawal at Maliki's insistence. The militants ISIS organization draws from trained officers in the old Iraqi military before the invasion and Sunni militants in Syria. This threatens the ability of the government to maintain peace in the country and creates risks for Iraqi oil supplies and revenues.
Grouped Articles
Fledgling Iraqi Military Is Outmatched on Battlefield
Wall Street Journal 04/28/2014
Sunni Militants Drive Iraqi Army Out of Mosul
New York Times 06/10/2014
Iraqi, U.S. Forces Trade Barbs Over Failures
Wall Street Journal 06/12/2014
Mosul Falls to ISIS, Endangering Iraq’s Democracy
New York Times 06/11/2014
U.S. Said to Rebuff Iraqi Request to Strike Militants
New York Times 06/11/2014
Sunni Fighters Gain as They Battle 2 Governments, and Other Rebels
New York Times 06/11/2014
Iraq's Kurdistan region and the invasion by ISIS in August 2014, the Kurdish U.S. backed response in 2015
08/14/2014
Iran and the U.S. aid the Peshmerga forces to push the ISIS Islamic state militants out of Kurdistan. Maliki steps down as prime minister and a new prime minister who would appeal to both Shia and Sunnis takes over. The failure of Maliki to bring national reconciliation and build a strong national military comprised of Shia and Sunni with the help of the U.S. leads to the collapse of Mosul. The situation with a badly trained and poorly organized Iraqi military and poorly equiped Peshmerga leads to the general collapse as Sunni ISIS militants in Syria push into Iraq in 2014. U.S. airstrikes help prevent the fall of Erbil, capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. France moves to aid Kurdistan as the EU fails to come up with a response. By 2015 the situation changed, with U.S. led airstrikes the Kurds had taken Sinjar from ISIS. an agreement.
Grouped Articles
Iraq Crisis: Effort to Aid Kurdish Forces Puts Iran, U.S. on Same Side
Wall Street Journal 08/14/2014
With Maliki Out of the Picture, U.S. Prepares to Boost Iraq Aid
Wall Street Journal 08/16/2014
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
U.S. Widens Air Campaign in Northern Iraq
Wall Street Journal 08/18/2014
Islamic State Fills Coffers From Illicit Economy in Syria, Iraq
Wall Street Journal 08/28/2014
How Kurds Came to Play Key Role in U.S. Plans to Combat Islamic State
Wall Street Journal 09/09/2014
The insurgency in Iraq in 2014 against the Maliki government's sectarian policies- the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria
06/10/2014
Mosul on the border with Syria is taken by the insurgents ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) who operate on the Syrian side against Assad. Mosul is Iraq's second largest city with different ethnic groups. Foreign fighters operating in Syria have joined the ISIS. Maliki had lost support in Mosul with his increasingly sectarian policies favoring Shiites and marginalizing Sunnis. The Iraqi forces lack training and are poorly organized compared to the insurgents fighting the Assad regime in Syria. The U.S. lost any chance of maintaining peace in the region with policies of the Obama administration distancing itself in Iraq, Syria and towards Iran's non-sectarian democracy movement. With moderates left in the cold in the region, sectarian influences are taking control and undoing the hard work of previous administrations. The hopes of the heavily young demographic oriented Middle East region in 2011-2012 for economic progress are now fading first into religious extremism and then into sectarian religious conflict, with Putin's government in Russia allowed by the Obama administration to pursue reckless policies in Syria against the interests of people in the region. A no fly zone or action of the kind taken in Libya at very small cost to the U.S. was not taken by U.S. president Obama. The failed reelection bid of Sarkozy in France left Britain's prime minister Cameron with no allies to pursue prudent policies in Syria that would have advanced democracy and economic development in the entire region.
Grouped Articles
Sunni Militants Drive Iraqi Army Out of Mosul
New York Times 06/10/2014
Wall Street Journal 06/11/2014
Iraqi, U.S. Forces Trade Barbs Over Failures
Wall Street Journal 06/12/2014
Mosul Falls to ISIS, Endangering Iraq’s Democracy
New York Times 06/11/2014
U.S. Said to Rebuff Iraqi Request to Strike Militants
New York Times 06/11/2014
Sunni Fighters Gain as They Battle 2 Governments, and Other Rebels
New York Times 06/11/2014
Michael Gordon and Lt. Gen. Trainor on the Endgame in Iraq and how the U.S. has fallen short of its objectives
09/04/2012
President Obama's overriding objective was winding down the war in Iraq. The Iraq the U.S. leaves behind falls short of other objectives such as maintaining a cooperation arrangement with the government and a presence in the region. Gordon and Trainor describe this in their new book.
Grouped Articles
Sectarian Attacks Return With a Roar to Iraq, Rattling a Capital Already on Edge
New York Times 08/17/2013
Surge in Iraqi Violence Reunites Maliki and Obama
New York Times 11/01/2013
Gates Faults Obama Over Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal 01/08/2014
Fledgling Iraqi Military Is Outmatched on Battlefield
Wall Street Journal 04/28/2014
U.S. Said to Rebuff Iraqi Request to Strike Militants
New York Times 06/11/2014
Veterans Watch as Gains Their Friends Died for Are Erased by Insurgents
New York Times 06/13/2014
Retired British diplomat Charles Crawford on on how U.S. policy on chemical weapons in Syria of president Obama has failed
09/11/2013
Crawford writes in the British daily, The Telegraph, on Sept. 10, 2013, on how sadly things have gone wrong. He calls it the worst day in western diplomatic history.
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 09/11/2013
What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria
New York Times 09/11/2013
Elite Syrian Unit Scatters Chemical Arms Stockpile
Wall Street Journal 09/13/2013
Obama Is Lost in the Mideast Bazaar
Wall Street Journal 09/12/2013
Inside White House, a Head-Spinning Reversal on Chemical Weapons
Wall Street Journal 09/16/2013
Wall Street Journal 09/16/2013
The increase in terrorism risk from the Obama administration's failure to effectively support moderate forces in Syria
07/09/2014
Grouped Articles
Syria Is Breeding Western Terrorists, U.S. Warns
Wall Street Journal 07/09/2014
Leaving U.S. Allies Adrift as Chaos Rises
Wall Street Journal 08/01/2014
New York Times 08/11/2014
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
Wall Street Journal 09/20/2014
The Too Little, Too Late Presidency
Wall Street Journal 02/18/2015
The use of chemical weapons by the Assad government in Syria and the failure of the U.S. Obama administration's response in Syria
08/23/2011
The western world looks on as chemical weapons are used repeatedly by Syria's Assad government, according to some reports. The lack of leadership from the U.S., France, Britain and Germany. The failure of the Russian government under Putin to separate global geopolitics from the aspirations of the people of Syria for freedom and democracy and the use of artillery and bombing of civilian population.
Grouped Articles
Israel Says Syria Has Used Chemical Weapons
New York Times 04/23/2013
New York Times 04/22/2013
Obamaâs Vow on Chemical Weapons Puts Him in Tough Spot
New York Times 05/04/2013
Pentagon Plans for the Worst in Syria
Wall Street Journal 05/07/2013
What if the U.S. doesn’t intervene in Syria? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/09/2013
Why did Mr. Obama overrule his advisers on Syria? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 05/09/2013
The failure of Maliki to reduce sectarianism in Iraq, and the failure of the Obama administration's Middle East policy, lead to reversal of years of effort in Iraq
08/15/2014
WSJ reporter Bradley talks to Maliki's aides who say he is only interested in personal power not the future of Iraq. Gen. James Jones, National Security Advisor to U.S. president Obama 2009-2010, says Maliki's corrupt policies and using increased sectarian conflict to further personal power, and president Obama's failure to act in Syria when chemical weapons were used as well as not maintaining a training presence after the withdrawal, are both responsible for the summer 2014 collapse in Iraq.
Linked Articles
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
Iraq Crisis: Nouri al-Maliki Quits
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
The contrasting views of Gen. Jones and Khedery in August 2014 on Iraq's tangled tortuous politics and sectarianism, showing the difficulty of the Iraq mission
08/15/2014
Linked Articles
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
New York Times 08/15/2014
Gen. James Jones, former National Security Advisor to U.S. president Obama, joins Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, describing the failure of Obama's Middle East policy
08/11/2014
Linked Articles
How to Save Iraq and Honor American Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal 08/15/2014
A Rift in Worldviews Is Exposed as Clinton Faults Obama on Policy
New York Times 08/11/2014
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