New Iraq problems

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Uniform Two Six
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New Iraq problems

Post by Uniform Two Six »

Dick Cheney went on TV attacking the Obama Administration for "mishandling" the Iraq situation. Apparently, he felt that the administration should have kept troops in Iraq past the 2011 withdrawal deadline, and he's complaining that the President is showing weakness by not sending in military forces right away. Apparently, he's gaining traction with the American people who are polling at 57% disapproval for Obama's foreign policy. Why exactly is it that nobody seems to recall that this is the guy (Cheney) who claimed that we needed to go into Iraq in the first place because Saddam had nukes ("We can't let the smoking gun come in the form of a mushroom cloud"), and then as late as 2006 was assuring everybody who would listen that there really wasn't an insurgency in Iraq, and that it was "just a few dead-enders", and that the troubles were in their "last-throes"? Why exactly does anybody listen to this idiot?
:eyebrow:
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Uniform Two Six
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Re: New Iraq problems

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Apparently he also wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal:
Dick Cheney wrote:As the terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) threaten Baghdad, thousands of slaughtered Iraqis in their wake, it is worth recalling a few of President Obama's past statements about ISIS and al Qaeda. "If a J.V. team puts on Lakers' uniforms that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant" (January 2014). "[C]ore al Qaeda is on its heels, has been decimated" (August 2013). "So, let there be no doubt: The tide of war is receding" (September 2011).
Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.
Winston Churchill is probably spinning in his grave.
:roll:
Dick Cheney wrote: Too many times to count, Mr. Obama has told us he is "ending" the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—as though wishing made it so.
Oh, so, sort of like "Mission Accomplished"?
:?
Dick Cheney wrote:His rhetoric has now come crashing into reality.
Which yours never had, I'm sure.
Dick Cheney wrote: 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. The fall of the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Tikrit, Mosul and Tel Afar, and the establishment of terrorist safe havens across a large swath of the Arab world, present a strategic threat to the security of the United States.
Because a bunch of largely illiterate rubes stuck in a desert in one of the cr@ppiest countries on earth, and who have to steal all their weapons and equipment, are totally a threat to the United States. Better start calling out the National Guard -- or Chuck Norris, or something...
:ninja:
Dick Cheney wrote:Mr. Obama's actions—before and after ISIS's recent advances in Iraq—have the effect of increasing that threat.
And what actions would you be referencing -- y'know since we have exactly zero military presence there?
:?
Dick Cheney wrote:On a trip to the Middle East this spring, we heard a constant refrain in capitals from the Persian Gulf to Israel, "Can you please explain what your president is doing?"
Which was never asked of George Bush.
Dick Cheney wrote: "Why is he walking away?" "Why is he so blithely sacrificing the hard fought gains you secured in Iraq?"
Possibly because they were intended to create an opening for Maliki's government to achieve a power-sharing compromise intended to lead to a long-term peace -- which Maliki and pretty much all of the major players adamantly refused to do.
Dick Cheney wrote: "Why is he abandoning your friends?" "Why is he doing deals with your enemies?"
Friends like Saudi Arabia from whence almost all of the 9/11 hijackers came from, where Al Qaeda was principally financed from, and whom are now financing the very ISIL terrorists that you're currently b**ching about?
Dick Cheney wrote:In one Arab capital, a senior official pulled out a map of Syria and Iraq. Drawing an arc with his finger from Raqqa province in northern Syria to Anbar province in western Iraq, he said, "They will control this territory. Al Qaeda is building safe havens and training camps here. Don't the Americans care?" Our president doesn't seem to. Iraq is at risk of falling to a radical Islamic terror group and Mr. Obama is talking climate change.
And as tempting as it is to go off on a rant drawing a parallel between you denying climate change exists and you denying that an insurgency exists in Iraq (in 2005) would be, I would instead point to what's happening here in California. Our water reserves are now dipping under 20% (in min-June) due to two years of devastating drought. So, illiterate idiots with rifles on the other side of the planet: Major national security threat. No water for an 8 billion dollar agriculture sector: no big deal.
Dick Cheney wrote: Terrorists take control of more territory and resources than ever before in history, and he goes golfing.
:blink:
You saw that scene from Farenheit 9/11, right?
Dick Cheney wrote:He seems blithely unaware, or indifferent to the fact, that a resurgent al Qaeda presents a clear and present danger to the United States of America.
Yeah, dammit! Somebody should have handed him an intelligence estimate entitled "Al Qaeda Determined To Strike In United States" or something. Friggin' liberals!
:evil:
Dick Cheney wrote:When Mr. Obama and his team came into office in 2009, al Qaeda in Iraq had been largely defeated,
Y'know, with the minor exception of Osama Bin Laden...
Dick Cheney wrote: ...thanks primarily to the heroic efforts of U.S. armed forces during the surge.
And spending millions of U.S. taxpayer-dollars to essentially buy-off the Sunni tribals, had no impact whatsoever...
:roll:
Dick Cheney wrote: Mr. Obama had only to negotiate an agreement to leave behind some residual American forces,
Which the Iraqis also refused to do.
Dick Cheney wrote: ...training and intelligence capabilities to help secure the peace.
Which was why we spend billions of dollars more to build up Iraqi security forces -- y'know, so we'd have to do that job instead.
Dick Cheney wrote:Instead, he abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.

The tragedy unfolding in Iraq today is only part of the story. Al Qaeda and its affiliates are resurgent across the globe. According to a recent Rand study, between 2010 and 2013, there was a 58% increase in the number of Salafi-jihadist terror groups around the world. During that same period, the number of terrorists doubled.
And how many terrorists were there before you guys decided to invade two predominately muslim countries and do things like 'extraordinary rendition' and waterboarding, or the Abu Gharib scandal in which intelligence folks wanted the detainees "softened up" before interrogation? Y'know, back when some CIA estimates put Al Qaeda membership globally at around 350?
Dick Cheney wrote: 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.
:blink:
What?
Dick Cheney wrote: Now, in a move that defies credulity, he toys with the idea of ushering Iran into Iraq.
:eyebrow:
Dick Cheney wrote: Only a fool would believe American policy in Iraq should be ceded to Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terror.
Yeah, ceding the field to the Iranians is a really dumb idea -- totally unlike taking down Saddam Hussein, who hated the Iranians, fought a decade-long war with them, and generally acted as a strategic counterbalance to them. That one was pure genius, Dick.
:x
Dick Cheney wrote: This president is willfully blind to the impact of his policies. Despite the threat to America unfolding across the Middle East, aided by his abandonment of Iraq, he has announced he intends to follow the same policy in Afghanistan.

Because the policy of staying in Afghanistan forever worked out so well for the Soviet Union.
Dick Cheney wrote:Despite clear evidence of the dire need for American leadership around the world, the desperation of our allies and the glee of our enemies, President Obama seems determined to leave office ensuring he has taken America down a notch.
Yeah, I think that was part of his campaign slogan, even: "Yes -- We -- Can!... destroy America utterly.
:unclewolf:
Dick Cheney wrote: Indeed, the speed of the terrorists' takeover of territory in Iraq has been matched only by the speed of American decline on his watch.
And how quickly did America decline on your watch in the 2008 Financial Crisis?
:eyebrow:
Dick Cheney wrote:The president explained his view in his Sept. 23, 2009, speech before the United Nations General Assembly. "Any world order," he said, "that elevates one nation above others cannot long survive." Tragically, he is quickly proving the opposite—through one dangerous policy after another—that without American pre-eminence, there can be no world order.
So, did you ever make that point at any of the NATO conferences?
Dick Cheney wrote:It is time the president and his allies faced some hard truths: America remains at war, and withdrawing troops from the field of battle while our enemies stay in the fight does not "end" wars. Weakness and retreat are provocative.
Whereas being overtly provocative -- totally isn't provocative at all...
Dick Cheney wrote: U.S. withdrawal from the world is disastrous and puts our own security at risk.

Al Qaeda and its affiliates are resurgent and they present a security threat not seen since the Cold War.
Because Al Qaeda's new navy, air force and nuclear deterrent component is way scarier than the old Soviet Union ever was?
Dick Cheney wrote: Defeating them will require a strategy—not a fantasy.
Y'know, like "the Iraq occupation will finance itself" -- or "we'll be greeted as liberators".
:thumbsup:
Dick Cheney wrote: It will require sustained difficult military, intelligence and diplomatic efforts—not empty misleading rhetoric.
Because we can't let the smoking gun come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
Dick Cheney wrote: It will require rebuilding America's military capacity—reversing the Obama policies that have weakened our armed forces and reduced our ability to influence events around the world.
Quite unlike your policies of ripping out the heart and guts of the U.S. military in a second Vietnam, and ensuring that we don't have enough credible military muscle left to keep douchbags like Kim Jong Un in their little box.
Dick Cheney wrote: 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.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan said, "If history teaches anything, it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom."
He also said that "trickle-down" economics would work, and a decade later was having trouble remembering his own name, much less coming up with snappy sound-bites.
Dick Cheney wrote:President Obama is on track to securing his legacy as the man who betrayed our past and squandered our freedom.
As the PATRIOT Act didn't.
:eyebrow:
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Re: New Iraq problems

Post by Terastas »

Uniform Two Six wrote:Why exactly does anybody listen to this idiot?
:eyebrow:
Because they hate President Blackenstein so much that they are willing to buy into any mound of bullshit as long as it's coming from someone that hates him too.

These people are so devoted to hating Obama that they can't even be consistent with themselves. Half of them were demanding the White House do whatever it could to release Bowe Bergdahl, then decided overnight that he was a deserter, traitor and terrorist after Obama gave them what they wanted.

Nobody actually trusts Cheney. In fact, pretty much everyone knows he is absolutely full of s***. They just don't care because they are full of s*** too.
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Re: New Iraq problems

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I don't know. I get the sinking feeling that this is sort of like their views on climate change. When the facts are so overwhelmingly against them, one would expect that they would find a new avenue to go about it, like claiming that cutting carbon dioxide emissions would be prohibitively expensive in the short-term, or something. Instead, they attack the science itself. They claim some huge conspiracy to fake the numbers, and that's as far as they feel they have to go. And worse, a lot of them really believe that garbage. It's like reality itself and objective fact has become entirely optional. I was mentioning this to one of my Republican associates under the topic of Dick Cheney and his claims in 2002-2003 justifying the invasion in the first place. I essentially said that he had claimed that Saddam had nukes, and had been totally wrong. The answer was something like 'Well, that's your opinion.' The hell it is! He said there were nukes, and there weren't. That's not opinion, that's fact. 'And that's your opinion and you're entitled to it...'
:x
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Re: New Iraq problems

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I love how the Iraqis are now blaming the rise of the Islamic State on the U.S. Apparently we left too early before the situation was fully stabilized, and before the Iraqi Army had been brought up to full capability. All of this quietly ignores the fact that the Iraqis were demanding the U.S. withdraw in the first place. Also quietly ignored is that the primary reason why the Iraqis wanted us out was because the Shiites in the government wanted to consolidate their power, and the U.S. wasn't playing that game (since doing so would have laid the foundation for something like the I.S. to fester). This also ignores the basic issue that alienating the Sunni minority basically set up the whole scenario we're seeing playing out right now.

They're complaining that we should have gone into Syria at the first sign of trouble -- which seems sort of hypocritical given how much they didn't like the U.S. going into their own country, but also ignores the fact that we have no real justification or national interest in doing so.

No good explanation has come out of their camp as to why their army threw in the towel and fled at the first sign of trouble, either (and left all their stuff behind, so now I.S. has Humvees and artillery).

Possibly the best part of this ongoing rant is that they blame the U.S. for not selling them the fighter aircraft they wanted. This despite the minor issue of the Iraqis themselves deferring payment for a year on the deal because Maliki wanted to use the funds to grease his own political wheels, and inexplicably missing their latest payment as well. The first two F-16s are sitting on the tarmac in Fort Worth right now because the Iraqis apparently can't get their sh*t together.

But, no. It's all our fault.
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Re: New Iraq problems

Post by Volkodlak »

heard that US is thinking about broad military action againsi ISIS do you know anything about this?
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Re: New Iraq problems

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I'd be cautious about the "broad" part of the broad military action thing. There will probably be some air strikes into Syria to target artillery, light armored vehicles, and suspected command and control nodes. There might be a special forces action or two, but I doubt it will go much beyond that. The strategy now (as far as I can tell) is to knock the I.S. capability back down to a poorly-armed terrorist group. The only wild card here is Assad's air defenses. If Assad is smart, he'll just tell everybody on his side to stand down while the United States Air Force happily bombs the ever-living-sh*t out of his I.S. adversaries, but at this point I take nothing for granted. Anyway, the strategy seems to be to leave the I.S. to the Syrians, the Kurds, and the Iraqi Army once their maneuver warfare capability and C-3 capacity have been reduced.
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