Obama Says ISIS was Caused by Our 2003 Invasion, "Which is why America should aim before it shoots."

[99th_Monkey]

Barack Obama places the blame for the swift rise of Isis at George W. Bush's feet by suggesting its growth was an unintended consequence of... the US invasion of Iraq. The US President made the comments as he spoke with Vice News about a number of issues currently affecting America.

Isis began its rapid and bloody advance across Iraq last year, taking over swathes of the country and territories in Syria, later declaring a ‘caliphate’ across areas under its control. The extremist group has committed a number of atrocities in these areas, including mass beheadings, public executions and the kidnapping of women from minority groups who were sold into sexual slavery.

Mr Obama said: "Two things: one is, Isis is a direct outgrowth of al-Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion. Which is an example of unintended consequences. Which is why we should generally aim before we shoot." - See more at:

See source article + a VIDEO HERE: http://upriser.com/posts/obama-isis-unintended-consequence-of-invading-iraq-which-is-why-we-should-aim-before-we-shoot#sthash.kerShLDr.dpuf

[elleng]

1. GREAT TO HEAR!

[Warpy]

2. That says it all

Now he needs to point out that a strong and intact Iran is the best counter to those shitbags that the region has at the moment.

Saudi will simply keep enabling them.

[stage left]

3. Bravo!

Bravo, Mr. President!

[Electric Monk]

4. Well, duh? Thanks for actually admitting it. Now can we put Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld on trial?

Many on the left predicted something like it before their war for profit even started.

[99th_Monkey]

5. +100 nt

[JEB]

10. That is exactly correct.

Frog march the war criminals to their day of reckoning. Immediate reparations from the war profiteers. Let the world know that a small part of the soul of this country is still alive.

[Scootaloo]

14. Don't get sanctimonious n/t

[KansDem]

34. Don't forget Condi!

It wouldn't be nice if we didn't include Rice

[brer cat]

6. K&R

Sing it, PBO.

[WDIM]

8. The war Hillary voted for.

I doubt it.

[Cha]

9. And, Pres Obama made that very clear in Oct 2002 that he was against the "Dumb" war..

snip//

"I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income, to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.

snip//

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors...and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.

I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.


The rest..
http://obamaspeeches.com/001-2002-Speech-Against-the-Iraq-War-Obama-Speech.htm

mahalo 99th

[KingCharlemagne]

31. Although i have my differences with President Obama's governing style and

unwillingness to bloody the noses (metaphorically speaking) of his opponents -- call it the professorial approach -- the historian in me feels compelled to acknowledge that Obama gave that speech at a time when it was very politically risky to do so, at a time when Dem leaders Gebhardt and Daschle -- remember them? -- were negotiating the Rose Garden konkordat with Bush that took Iraq "off the table" for the October 2002 mid-terms, the last chance the American people had of weighing in on the unchecked bellicosity and all-around stupidity that came to characterize America after 9-11 before the invasion became a fait accompli. That speech by Obama could well have ended Obama's career trajectory before it advanced much further. So President Obama deserves MAJOR PROPS for his prescience, even if his unwillingness to prosecute the war criminals responsible leaves me highly unsatisfied.

[Cha]

36. Mahalo KingCharlemagne... totally agree.

[George II]

11. The man never ceases to amaze me. I wish I could be around 50 years from now...

....when he's declared the greatest President we ever had.

[Adrahil]

12. He's right.

Iraq was the worst decision in modern American history.

[Triana]

13. He's absolutely right. Seems I read elsewhere that ISIS began

coordinating itself while many of it's base and current leaders were still in American-run Iraq prisons. There were several prison breaks during that time. And then based on an agreement GEORGE W. BUSH made with the Iraqi government in 2006 or so, the Iraqi prisons were turned over to the Iraqi government when the US withdrew. The Iraqi government then turned around and RELEASED the current leader of ISIS from said prisons.

RWNJs grouse that Obama had us leaving Iraq "too soon". HE. DID. NOT.

President Obama followed the SAME WITHDRAWAL TIMELINE that Bush's military advisers (many of whom remained after Obama was elected) recommended.

The truth is as the President says: ISIS formed as an outgrowth of Al Queda, which was NOT largely in Iraq until we invaded and occupied the place and while they were concentrated there afterwards, primarily in the prisons there, ISIS was formed.

The leader of ISIS himself said so: http://rt.com/news/213843-isis-creation-prison-iraq/

[merrily]

15. Yes, for the love of whomever, aim before you urge the Senate to back the invasion of Iraq.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6211673

[whereisjustice]

16. You know he says shit like that then hires someone who leaked top secret info to his mistress

Gen. David Petraeus was the architect of the "mission accomplished" surge that Obama emulated in Afghanistan with disastrous results. And it turns out the surge was just as much of a disaster in Iraq. He was also responsible for training Iraqi forces who gladly took our billions of dollars and turned tail at the first sign of danger. He also completely failed to predict ISIS.

You'll remember he was also the general Paula Broadwell was fucking to gain special access, an obvious conflict of interest for which he was barely given a slap on the wrist.

Talk is cheap. Jesus - we can't find anyone better to do this?

Top officials in the Obama administration have consulted former CIA Director David Petraeus about the fight against the Islamic State group — despite his admission that he gave classified material to his biographer and mistress, the White House said Monday.

Petraeus was brought in by President George W. Bush to command multinational forces in Iraq in 2007, and presided over the "surge" of American forces there. Defending the Obama administration's decision to get advice from him periodically, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Petraeus maintains strong relationships with Iraqi military and political leaders.

"He is, I think, legitimately regarded as an expert, when it comes to the security situation in Iraq," Earnest said. "So I think it makes a lot of sense for senior administration officials to, on occasion, consult him for advice."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/white-house-consulting-petraeus-fight-29675022

Gen. David H. Petraeus, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq during the 2007-2008 surge, was back in that country last week for the first time in more than three years. He was attending the annual Sulaimani Forum, a get-together of Iraqi leaders, thinkers and academics, at the American University of Iraq - Sulaimani in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/20/petraeus-the-islamic-state-isnt-our-biggest-problem-in-iraq/

[MisterP]

17. I dunno, I remember a certain administration that thought it was ever so clever in using

ultra-Salafists to overthrow a few dictators--Qaddaf-someting and Assad-whatever in 201

I wonder how that went

[delrem]

18. I'm happy to hear that the USA is finally owning it.

This admission of ownership does, however, point in too partisan a direction, since many Dems voted for the war of choice against Iraq.
There has also been a coup by a "ragtag army of freedom fighting rebels" overthrowing the gov't of Libya.
The devastation left behind.
There is the overt support of contras, of "moderate rebels", in their violent attempt to overthrow the gov't of Syria. And there is now ISIS.

hoodathunkit?
eta: PNACers? could it be?

There are "Friends of Libya" and "Friends of Syria", which include a coincidental bunch of proxies as the USA "led from behind". And there is ISIS.

[Wellingtom]

19. Powerful

And true.

[eridani]

20. I'd like it if the US would back off on being an imperial power--

--but if we can't have that, "Don't do stupid shit" is the next best thing.

[Savannahmann]

21. Does that mean we're going to cut back on Drone Strikes?

Because in Yemen alone, we conducted twenty drone strikes last year, and we're on track to conduct that many more this year.

http://securitydata.newamerica.net/drones/yemen/analysis.html

[99th_Monkey]

22. Sadly, I don't think so.

I think in Obama's mind "Drones = aiming before we shoot" i.e. thereby avoiding putting 1000s of 'boot on the ground'

I don't like the drone shit either, since it has some of the same blowback factors as mass invasions i.e. creating more and more terrorists i.e. people who've seen their family members unjustly and wrongfully murdered by US military.

[DhhD]

24. Drones in Yemen = aiming at the real culprit, Saudi Arabia. Al-Queda became Islamic State.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

23. speaking obvious truths....

I mean, geez, it's not some obscure complex physics equation.

What a world, where speaking obvious truth is taboo.

[99th_Monkey]

25. Yes, but ..

Yes, O spoke an obvious truth, but it's never-the-less quite noteworthy,
precisely because it's coming from the "bully pulpit" for the first time.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. hrmmmmmm, true

Good point, hadn't thought of it that way.

[treestar]

26. Right again Mr. President

Talk about unnecessary wars. Bush and the neocons deserve endless condemnation for it.

[Duval]

27. An honest President, at last! nt

[YOHABLO]

28. Bush Cheney Rumsfield Rice lied us into invading Iraq. LIED. The buck stops with them.

But it doesn't help the thousands that are being murdered as we speak by these radical militants.

[Mr.Bill]

29. And don't forget

Colin Powell.

[99th_Monkey]

30. You mean those "radical militants" that the USA/CIA/DoD created and armed?

USA/CIA/DoD created & support (albeit clandestinely) AQ & ISIS
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/sudans-president-claims-cia-and-mossad-stand-behind-isis-and-boko-haram-10051024.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/world/middleeast/suspicions-run-deep-in-iraq-that-cia-and-the-islamic-state-are-united.html?_r=0

USA/CIA/DoD just gave ... ah I mean "lost" ... 1/2 Billion $ in armaments to AQ & ISIS
http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/american-aircraft-airdropped-weapons-to-isis-says-mp/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/19/1371828/-The-Pentagon-Admits-It-May-Have-Lost-500-Million-in-U-S-Weaponry-To-Al-Qaeda#

[AikenYankee]

32. Thank you Mr. President!

[chknltl]

33. The BFEE LIED US THERE! 'Didn't aim well' significantly misses the mark sir.

Sooo close to saying what needs saying Mr. President. Sooo close. nuff said