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Defending ISIS Policy, Obama Acknowledges Flaws in Effort So Far
Keywords:
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
U.S. president Obama and handling of Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq- policy failures and corrective course
09/28/2014
Grouped Articles
Obama Acknowledges U.S. Erred in Assessing ISIS
New York Times 09/28/2014
Iraq and U.S. Find Some Potential Sunni Allies Have Already Been Lost
New York Times 11/15/2014
Months of Airstrikes Fail to Slow Islamic State in Syria
Wall Street Journal 01/15/2015
Coalition Has Reclaimed Territory from Islamic State, Kerry Says
Wall Street Journal 01/23/2015
New York Times 02/07/2015
Obama’s Dual View of War Power Seeks Limits and Leeway
New York Times 02/11/2015
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
John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Bolton on the contradictions and failure of the Obama policy in Syria and Iraq in 2013-2016
10/07/2014
Grouped Articles
To Defeat Islamic State, Remove Assad
Wall Street Journal 10/07/2014
Turkish Inaction on ISIS Advance Dismays the U.S.
New York Times 10/07/2014
Will Syria Be Obama’s Vietnam?
New York Times 10/07/2014
The Too Little, Too Late Presidency
Wall Street Journal 02/18/2015
To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran
New York Times 03/26/2015
Gen. Martin Dempsey Leaves a Legacy of Caution
Wall Street Journal 05/06/2015
The Obama administration's decision to ask Congress for $500 million in June 2014 to aid moderate forces in Syria including the Free Syria Army
06/27/2014
The decision follows gains by the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) extremist Sunni militants over large areas in Sunni parts of Iraq. Sunnis alienated by the Maliki government's policies favoring Shiites have supported Sunni militants. The move comes late in the conflict after the Sunnis are left to fend for themselves in Syria and Iraq, and continues a policy of no active engagement of U.S. airpower in the region- increases aid that is already being sent, and serves the purpose of checking the gains of the ISIS, making no significant change to the situation in the region of a refugee crisis and expanded conflict. The move may be intended also to show a balance of support to Sunni and Shia, as the Obama administration is supporting the Maliki government against ISIS. The same support of moderates with a "no fly zone" could have kept U.S. combat forces out of the region and achieved what was achieved in Libya of freeing the region of the Assad regime, not emboldening Russia's Putin, stood up for America's support for democracy and freedom and condemnation of the use of chemical weapons, been consistent with American public opinion's desire for no large interventions overseas, continued focus on the domestic economy, and not compromised severely the hard won gains of America's military and servicemen in the last decade. So weak has been the Republican response and so partisan the politics, that few Democrats voices have been heard to questions the policies, so that a muddled policy based on the president's inclinations has been allowed to look sensible. It has made the U.S. look weak in Europe and Asia, as Russia and China have been emboldened in each region. Democrats have only to look to Truman in 1947-1950 when Berlin, Greece, South Korea, were not left to fall into chaos with millions of refugees and Russian Communist influence, to see the difference with the current policies, without a knee jerk reaction to the Bush era.
Grouped Articles
Obama's Foreign-Policy Failures Go Far Beyond Iraq
Wall Street Journal 06/27/2014
Syria Is Breeding Western Terrorists, U.S. Warns
Wall Street Journal 07/09/2014
Washington Post 07/12/2014
U.S. Sees Risks in Assisting a Compromised Iraqi Force
New York Times 07/13/2014
U.S. Approves More Hellfire Missiles for Iraq
Wall Street Journal 07/30/2014
Leaving U.S. Allies Adrift as Chaos Rises
Wall Street Journal 08/01/2014
U.S. president Obama and the authorization by Congress for the war effort against Islamic State
02/11/2015
Grouped Articles
Obama’s Dual View of War Power Seeks Limits and Leeway
New York Times 02/11/2015
Splits in Islamic State Emerge as Its Ranks Expand
Wall Street Journal 03/10/2015
Defending ISIS Policy, Obama Acknowledges Flaws in Effort So Far
New York Times 05/21/2015
U.S. Embracing a New Approach on Battling ISIS in Iraq
New York Times 06/10/2015
Turkey Uneasy as U.S. Support of Syrian Kurds Grows
New York Times 06/29/2015
Regional Discord Fuels Islamic State’s Rise in Mideast
Wall Street Journal 10/16/2015
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
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
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