The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
You Want Hypotheticals? Here's One
Charles Krauthammer
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"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
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FAKE CAMPAIGNS DON’T DESERVE REAL CAMPAIGN COVERAGE
If Hilly Clinton was running a real campaign, today would be a fascinating moment for the presumptive nominee. She’s in South Carolina where she needs to make amends with black voters who not only rejected her in 2008 but rebuked her and her husband for their presumptuous approach. On the question of whether Clinton can run and win a return to the White House as an unabashed liberal, enthusiasm of black voters is a paramount consideration. But alas, she is not running a real campaign. She is instead running something more akin to a legal defense or corporate PR after an oil spill.
It would be fascinating to know whether Bill Clinton was sorry for how he treated Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., in 2008 or if Bubba now felt sheepish about bragging about being called “America’s first black president.” It would also be fascinating to hear what Hilly thought about nObama’s record on issues like black poverty and joblessness or hear her defend criticism of police and stiff drug penalties in light of the rising violence in places like Baltimore. It would be fascinating to know… if there weren’t a flock of turkey vultures circling the actual, substantive issues relating to her character and fitness for office.
We are not likely to hear her on any of those issues in part because she will be inside her dome, interacting with party officials and a curated collection of “minority women small business owners.” The topic is Clinton’s enthusiastic support for equal pay for women. If anyone asks about the Clintons and their 2008 comeuppance with black voters it will be a result of a catastrophic staff failure, not the actual give and take of campaigning among real people and real reporters. Clinton isn’t even likely to be asked about an on-topic awkwardness.
If Clinton does briefly speak to reporters, the kinds of answers and laughing brush-offs she offers are worse than useless. They are simply untethered scraps of lawyer-approved defenses or just outright evasions. Painful to watch. But those who suggest that Clinton is making a mistake in not opening up herself to the press and public suppose that she could somehow answer the questions before her. She can’t talk about how her erstwhile foundation employee was trying to profit from the Libya war she sold. She can’t explain what her husband’s unreported consulting firm was doing. She can’t explain the specifics of a Russian uranium deal she helped get approved that profited one of her patrons. She certainly can’t stand by her prior claims of why she established a secret server for emails or talk at much length about the process for reviewing those she ordered destroyed.
Any substantive interview would devolve into something that sounded way too much like one of her depositions than an actual chat. And while you can “plead the Fifth” in court, you can’t use it in an interview. And so that leaves Clinton doing the only thing she can: damage control in hopes that reporters will eventually tire of covering the story and start covering a non-existent horse race. But every good reporter knows that covering a phony campaign like a real one would be malpractice.
Until she gets past her corporate damage control campaign and takes her medicine, the only apt topic for Clinton coverage are the scandals and controversies from which she is hiding. -Fox News
If Hilly Clinton was running a real campaign, today would be a fascinating moment for the presumptive nominee. She’s in South Carolina where she needs to make amends with black voters who not only rejected her in 2008 but rebuked her and her husband for their presumptuous approach. On the question of whether Clinton can run and win a return to the White House as an unabashed liberal, enthusiasm of black voters is a paramount consideration. But alas, she is not running a real campaign. She is instead running something more akin to a legal defense or corporate PR after an oil spill.
It would be fascinating to know whether Bill Clinton was sorry for how he treated Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., in 2008 or if Bubba now felt sheepish about bragging about being called “America’s first black president.” It would also be fascinating to hear what Hilly thought about nObama’s record on issues like black poverty and joblessness or hear her defend criticism of police and stiff drug penalties in light of the rising violence in places like Baltimore. It would be fascinating to know… if there weren’t a flock of turkey vultures circling the actual, substantive issues relating to her character and fitness for office.
We are not likely to hear her on any of those issues in part because she will be inside her dome, interacting with party officials and a curated collection of “minority women small business owners.” The topic is Clinton’s enthusiastic support for equal pay for women. If anyone asks about the Clintons and their 2008 comeuppance with black voters it will be a result of a catastrophic staff failure, not the actual give and take of campaigning among real people and real reporters. Clinton isn’t even likely to be asked about an on-topic awkwardness.
If Clinton does briefly speak to reporters, the kinds of answers and laughing brush-offs she offers are worse than useless. They are simply untethered scraps of lawyer-approved defenses or just outright evasions. Painful to watch. But those who suggest that Clinton is making a mistake in not opening up herself to the press and public suppose that she could somehow answer the questions before her. She can’t talk about how her erstwhile foundation employee was trying to profit from the Libya war she sold. She can’t explain what her husband’s unreported consulting firm was doing. She can’t explain the specifics of a Russian uranium deal she helped get approved that profited one of her patrons. She certainly can’t stand by her prior claims of why she established a secret server for emails or talk at much length about the process for reviewing those she ordered destroyed.
Any substantive interview would devolve into something that sounded way too much like one of her depositions than an actual chat. And while you can “plead the Fifth” in court, you can’t use it in an interview. And so that leaves Clinton doing the only thing she can: damage control in hopes that reporters will eventually tire of covering the story and start covering a non-existent horse race. But every good reporter knows that covering a phony campaign like a real one would be malpractice.
Until she gets past her corporate damage control campaign and takes her medicine, the only apt topic for Clinton coverage are the scandals and controversies from which she is hiding. -Fox News
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CARLY TROLLS HILLY SO HARD IN S.C.
Weekly Standard: “Democrat Hilly Clinton and Republican Carly Fiorina will both be campaigning in Columbia, South Carolina, on Wednesday, and the Fiorina campaign is making sure reporters know its candidate will be answering questions. Fiorina will be available to speak to the press, says deputy campaign manager Sarah Isgur Flores, shortly before speaking with Republican state legislators at the state capitol. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO will also travel to Spartanburg later in the day for another event. ‘Our events tomorrow are all open to the press,’ said Flores in an email to reporters. ‘And by open press, we mean we'll actually take questions. That's right. We've answered hundreds of questions from reporters because we believe the American people will not and should not elect a president that can't answer for her record, won't explain her positions or for whom the truth is whatever she can get away with.’” -Fox News
Weekly Standard: “Democrat Hilly Clinton and Republican Carly Fiorina will both be campaigning in Columbia, South Carolina, on Wednesday, and the Fiorina campaign is making sure reporters know its candidate will be answering questions. Fiorina will be available to speak to the press, says deputy campaign manager Sarah Isgur Flores, shortly before speaking with Republican state legislators at the state capitol. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO will also travel to Spartanburg later in the day for another event. ‘Our events tomorrow are all open to the press,’ said Flores in an email to reporters. ‘And by open press, we mean we'll actually take questions. That's right. We've answered hundreds of questions from reporters because we believe the American people will not and should not elect a president that can't answer for her record, won't explain her positions or for whom the truth is whatever she can get away with.’” -Fox News
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nOBAMA’S LEGACY ON THE DOCKET
An appellate court smacked down an administration bid to get President nObama’s executive amnesty program up and running while a suit from 26 states seeking to block the measure works its way through the courts. But that’s just one piece of the heavy docket on nObama’s legacy projects. In the final years of the nObama era, courts will be passing judgment on the president’s priorities. Issue by issue, WaPoexamines how nObama’s legacy is in legal jeopardy: “President nObama’s second-term agenda, it seems, is in the hands of the courts. Same-sex marriage. nObamacare. Climate change. And now immigration. And in many cases, there is significant doubt about whether his signature initiatives will stand legal scrutiny.” And why? Because he was unable or unwilling to work through Congress and opted to push the limits of executive power. -Fox News
An appellate court smacked down an administration bid to get President nObama’s executive amnesty program up and running while a suit from 26 states seeking to block the measure works its way through the courts. But that’s just one piece of the heavy docket on nObama’s legacy projects. In the final years of the nObama era, courts will be passing judgment on the president’s priorities. Issue by issue, WaPoexamines how nObama’s legacy is in legal jeopardy: “President nObama’s second-term agenda, it seems, is in the hands of the courts. Same-sex marriage. nObamacare. Climate change. And now immigration. And in many cases, there is significant doubt about whether his signature initiatives will stand legal scrutiny.” And why? Because he was unable or unwilling to work through Congress and opted to push the limits of executive power. -Fox News
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WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE
Flannery O’Connor’s harsh and painful depiction of the human spirit’s journey to grace may have shocked audiences of her time, but her place as one of America’s great authors is sealed. The U.S. Postal Service announced that O’Connor will be the latest addition in the forever stamp collection with her signature peacock feathers flanking her portrait. A Georgia native and devout Roman Catholic, O’Connor is best known for her grippingly honest tales of the religious enlightenment, such as “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” a story about a family who encounters trouble on their way to a vacation home exhibits grace even in the darkest situation. -Fox News
Flannery O’Connor’s harsh and painful depiction of the human spirit’s journey to grace may have shocked audiences of her time, but her place as one of America’s great authors is sealed. The U.S. Postal Service announced that O’Connor will be the latest addition in the forever stamp collection with her signature peacock feathers flanking her portrait. A Georgia native and devout Roman Catholic, O’Connor is best known for her grippingly honest tales of the religious enlightenment, such as “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” a story about a family who encounters trouble on their way to a vacation home exhibits grace even in the darkest situation. -Fox News
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nObamacare: Republicans Can’t Win For Losing?
(sharylattkisson.com) - If the plaintiffs win the current Affordable Care Act (ACA) case before the U.S. Supreme Court, King v. Burwell, millions of Americans who bought health insurance through the federal marketplace or “exchange” will lose the federal tax dollars they’re getting to help buy their policies... That’s because the Court would have ruled the ACA only allowed subsidies to be given to those buying policies on state-established exchanges; not the federal website. It would theoretically be a victory for Republicans who oppose nObamacare: Americans would likely find the health care law less palatable if tax money isn’t helping pay for their mandatory policies. They would suddenly be exposed to the reality faced by those who aren’t getting subsidies: insurance may cost more, come with higher deductibles, and provide less coverage. But some Congressional Republicans are more worried about winning the Supreme Court case than losing it. https://sharylattkisson.com/obamacare-republicans-cant-win-for-losing/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_med
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Hilly the Arms Dealer
(Matthew Vadum) - While presidential candidate Hilly Clinton was America’s top diplomat the Department of State that she oversaw approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments forked over millions of dollars to the now-embattled Clinton Foundation... According to an International Business Times report by David Sirota and Andrew Perez, “at least seven foreign governments that received State Department clearance for American arms did donate to the Clinton Foundation while Hilly Clinton was serving as secretary.” The article identified the seven nations as Algeria, Australia, Kuwait, Norway, Oman, Qatar, and Thailand. Mainstream media’s surprisingly probing coverage of the unfolding Clinton Foundation donations-for-favors scandal suggests that reporters have turned on the Clintons in the age of nObama. http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/matthew-vadum/hillary-the-arms-dealer/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=a938a0a2b2-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag&utm_term=0_57e32c1dad-a938a0a2b2-156509103
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Trial of Jason Rezaian raises red flags about proposed nuclear deal
(Michael Rubin) - Tuesday a revolutionary court in Tehran began trying Washington Post Iran correspondent Jason Rezaian on charges of espionage... Rezaian, who has already been held for more than ten months, is but one of four American hostages which the Islamic Republic holds. Former FBI agent Robert Levinson just passed his 3,000th day in Iranian prison. Monday, on Memorial Day, retired U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati spent his 1,367th day in an Iranian prison. He was picked up by security in Tehran while visiting his grandmother. His visit was not careless; he had secured permission from the Iranian Interest Section in Washington, D.C., before making his trip. The fourth hostage is Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American pastor from Idaho whom Iranian authorities arrested in 2012 while he, too, was visiting family. http://www.aei.org/publication/trial-of-jason-rezaian-raises-red-flags-about-proposed-nuclear-deal/?utm_source=paramount&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AEITODAY&utm_campaign=052715
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nObama is Putting Our Nuclear Navy at Risk
(redstate.com) - The search for the next Chief of Naval Operations has not drawn much interest from the media, but there’s good reason it should... By nominating Admiral John Richardson, the current head of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, President nObama is jeopardizing a tradition of excellence stretching back since America first developed nuclear submarines. John Lehman, who served as President Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy for six years, does an excellent job explaining this in hisWall Street Journal editorial that ran this past Sunday. First, he explains the historical reasons behind our nuclear Navy’s excellence: http://www.redstate.com/2015/05/26/obama-putting-nuclear-navy-risk/
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Fundamental Transformation of the Military
(S. Noble) - Ostensibly, to accommodate Muslims and other religious groups streaming across our borders legally and illegally, Barack nObama has altered military guidelines to allow for skullcaps, turbans, facial hair, long, uncleansed head hair, piercings, religious body art, and so on while they are on military duty... Muslim headscarves will probably also be permitted. It isn’t a blanket approval and will be approved on a case-by-case basis but it’s basically the open door. There is a different standard for American Christians. Our military in Afghanistan have to abide by Ramadan diets and they had to take the steeple off their church and remove the windows with crosses. Military personnel can wear crosses but only if they are hidden. Christmas trees at Christmas time are frowned upon or banned. nObama is a jerk.
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Clinton Foundation hit with racketeering lawsuit
(Sarah Westwood) - Bill and Hilly Clinton and the Clinton Foundation have been hit with a racketeering lawsuit in Florida court... The lawsuit, filed by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, includes a legal request to have the Florida judge seize the private server on which Hilly Clinton and her aides hosted their emails while she served as secretary of state. Klayman has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Clintons and other prominent politicians. The racketeering, influenced and corrupt organizations, or RICO, case alleges the former first couple and their family philanthropy traded political favors for donations or generous speaking fees for Bill Clinton while his wife was the nation's chief diplomat. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-foundation-hit-with-racketeering-lawsuit/article/2565069?utm_campaign=Fox%20News&utm_source=foxnews.com&utm_medium=feed
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Confirmation of “Operation Zero Footprint” – Libyan Arms Deals
(theconservativetreehouse.com/) - If you are familiar with The Benghazi Brief you’ll note what is being described in this discussion of Hilly Clinton’s 2011 arms shipments is actually, Operation Zero Footprint... Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUW_8FzkGeo
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Emails: Clinton Talking About Arming Libyan opposition leaders
(nicedeb.wordpress.com) - The hits keep on coming for Hilly Clinton and her amazing, technicolor emails. The latest batch released by the State have Hilly discussing the idea of sending “private security experts” to arm Libyan opposition leaders... Moreover, in heavily redacted testimony on November 15, 2012, CIA Director Mike Morell and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed that the US intelligence community was aware that weapons were moving from Libya to Syria. Hilly Clinton, of course feigned shock and surprise during a Senate hearing in January of 2013, when queried by Rand Paul about the transfer of weapons out of Libya to Syria. https://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/video-latest-emails-show-clinton-talking-about-arming-libyan-opposition-leaders/
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WTO Ruling Blasts U.S. Sovereignty; TPP Threatens More of Same
(William F. Jasper) - As the World Trade Organization delivers another blow against U.S. sovereignty, President nObama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is poised to add more international judicial attacks against American liberty and independence... The May 18 ruling by a WTO appellate tribunal declaring a U.S. federal law illegal should have caused giant shock waves across America and should have sunk any hopes of congressional passage of the TPP, which, twinned with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), forms the centerpiece of the nObamaTrade globalist agenda. Both the TPP and the TTIP would create international courts that could (and would) override American federal, state, and local laws, as well as federal and state court decisions, and even federal and state constitutions, as The New American has reported previously. http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/20954-wto-ruling-blasts-u-s-sovereignty-tpp-threatens-more-of-same?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=03fc465888-The_Editors_Top_Picks_3_12_143_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8ca494f2d2-03fc465888-289778381
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Muslims Won't Listen to Hirsi Ali
(Tarek Fatah) - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the incredibly courageous, Somali-born author, has written a new book, Heretic, in which she calls for "nothing less than a Muslim Reformation."... Her Muslim critics may spew vitriol at her, but they cannot take away from the unflinching resolve she has demonstrated — in the face of death threats — as she critiques Islam, the religion of her childhood that she has abandoned. She is reaching out to Muslims, but I feel her gesture will resonate only with those who have already abandoned Islam, not those who remain inside its cauldron. http://www.meforum.org/5266/hirsi-ali
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You Want Hypotheticals? Here's One
Charles Krauthammer
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(freedomsback.com) - Ramadi falls. The Iraqi army flees. The great 60-nation anti-Islamic State coalition so grandly proclaimed by the nObama administration is nowhere to be seen. Instead, it’s the defense minister of Iran who flies into Baghdad, an unsubtle demonstration of who’s in charge — while the U.S. air campaign proves futile and America’s alleged strategy for combating the Islamic State is in free fall..
It gets worse. The Gulf States’ top leaders, betrayed and bitter, ostentatiously boycott President nObama’s failed Camp David summit. “We were America’s best friend in the Arab world for 50 years,” laments Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief.
It gets worse. The Gulf States’ top leaders, betrayed and bitter, ostentatiously boycott President nObama’s failed Camp David summit. “We were America’s best friend in the Arab world for 50 years,” laments Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief.
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Note: “were,” not “are.”
Note: “were,” not “are.”
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We are scraping bottom. Following six years of President nObama’s steady and determined withdrawal from the Middle East, America’s standing in the region has collapsed. And yet the question incessantly asked of the various presidential candidates is not about that. It’s a retrospective hypothetical: Would you have invaded Iraq in 2003 if you had known then what we know now?
We are scraping bottom. Following six years of President nObama’s steady and determined withdrawal from the Middle East, America’s standing in the region has collapsed. And yet the question incessantly asked of the various presidential candidates is not about that. It’s a retrospective hypothetical: Would you have invaded Iraq in 2003 if you had known then what we know now?
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First, the question Is not just a hypothetical, but an inherently impossible hypothetical. It contradicts itself. Had we known there were no weapons of mass destruction, the very question would not have arisen. The premise of the war — the basis for going to the U.N., to the Congress and, indeed, to the nation — was Iraq’s possession of WMD in violation of the central condition for the cease-fire that ended the first Gulf War. No WMD, no hypothetical to answer in the first place.
First, the question Is not just a hypothetical, but an inherently impossible hypothetical. It contradicts itself. Had we known there were no weapons of mass destruction, the very question would not have arisen. The premise of the war — the basis for going to the U.N., to the Congress and, indeed, to the nation — was Iraq’s possession of WMD in violation of the central condition for the cease-fire that ended the first Gulf War. No WMD, no hypothetical to answer in the first place.
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Second, the “if you knew then” question implicitly locates the origin and cause of the current disasters in 2003. As if the fall of Ramadi was predetermined then, as if the author of the current regional collapse is George W. Bush.
Second, the “if you knew then” question implicitly locates the origin and cause of the current disasters in 2003. As if the fall of Ramadi was predetermined then, as if the author of the current regional collapse is George W. Bush.
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This is nonsense. The fact is that by the end of Bush’s tenure, the war had been won. You can argue that the price of that victory was too high. Fine. We can debate that until the end of time. But what is not debatable is that it was a victory. Bush bequeathed to nObama a success. By whose measure? By nObama’s. As he told the troops at Fort Bragg on Dec. 14, 2011, “We are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people.” This was, said the president, a “moment of success.”
This is nonsense. The fact is that by the end of Bush’s tenure, the war had been won. You can argue that the price of that victory was too high. Fine. We can debate that until the end of time. But what is not debatable is that it was a victory. Bush bequeathed to nObama a success. By whose measure? By nObama’s. As he told the troops at Fort Bragg on Dec. 14, 2011, “We are leaving behind a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people.” This was, said the president, a “moment of success.”
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Which nObama proceeded to fully squander. With the 2012 election approaching, he chose to liquidate our military presence in Iraq. We didn’t just withdraw our forces. We abandoned, destroyed or turned over our equipment, stores, installations and bases. We surrendered our most valuable strategic assets, such as control of Iraqi airspace, soon to become the indispensable conduit for Iran to supply and sustain the Assad regime in Syria and cement its influence all the way to the Mediterranean. And, most relevant to the fall of Ramadi, we abandoned the vast intelligence network we had so painstakingly constructed in Anbar province, without which our current patchwork operations there are largely blind and correspondingly feeble.
Which nObama proceeded to fully squander. With the 2012 election approaching, he chose to liquidate our military presence in Iraq. We didn’t just withdraw our forces. We abandoned, destroyed or turned over our equipment, stores, installations and bases. We surrendered our most valuable strategic assets, such as control of Iraqi airspace, soon to become the indispensable conduit for Iran to supply and sustain the Assad regime in Syria and cement its influence all the way to the Mediterranean. And, most relevant to the fall of Ramadi, we abandoned the vast intelligence network we had so painstakingly constructed in Anbar province, without which our current patchwork operations there are largely blind and correspondingly feeble.
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The current collapse was not predetermined in 2003 but in 2011. Isn’t that what should be asked of Hilly Clinton? We know you think the invasion of 2003 was a mistake. But what about the abandonment of 2011? Was that not a mistake?
The current collapse was not predetermined in 2003 but in 2011. Isn’t that what should be asked of Hilly Clinton? We know you think the invasion of 2003 was a mistake. But what about the abandonment of 2011? Was that not a mistake?
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Mme. Secretary: When you arrived at State, al-Qaeda in Iraq had been crushed and expelled from Anbar. The Iraqi government had from Basra to Sadr City fought and defeated the radical, Iranian-proxy Shiite militias. Yet today these militias are back, once again dominating Baghdad. On your watch, we gave up our position as the dominant influence over a “sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq” — forfeiting that position gratuitously to Iran. Was that not a mistake? And where were you when it was made?
Mme. Secretary: When you arrived at State, al-Qaeda in Iraq had been crushed and expelled from Anbar. The Iraqi government had from Basra to Sadr City fought and defeated the radical, Iranian-proxy Shiite militias. Yet today these militias are back, once again dominating Baghdad. On your watch, we gave up our position as the dominant influence over a “sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq” — forfeiting that position gratuitously to Iran. Was that not a mistake? And where were you when it was made?
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Iraq is now a battlefield between the Sunni jihadists of the Islamic State and the Shiite jihadists of Iran’s Islamic Republic. There is no viable center. We abandoned it. The nObama administration’s unilateral pullout created a vacuum for the entry of the worst of the worst.
Iraq is now a battlefield between the Sunni jihadists of the Islamic State and the Shiite jihadists of Iran’s Islamic Republic. There is no viable center. We abandoned it. The nObama administration’s unilateral pullout created a vacuum for the entry of the worst of the worst.
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And the damage was self-inflicted. The current situation in Iraq, says David Petraeus, “is tragic foremost because it didn’t have to turn out this way. The hard-earned progress of the surge was sustained for over three years.”
And the damage was self-inflicted. The current situation in Iraq, says David Petraeus, “is tragic foremost because it didn’t have to turn out this way. The hard-earned progress of the surge was sustained for over three years.”
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Do the math. That’s 2009 through 2011, the first three nObama years. And then came the unraveling. When? The last U.S. troops left Iraq on Dec. 18, 2011.
Do the math. That’s 2009 through 2011, the first three nObama years. And then came the unraveling. When? The last U.S. troops left Iraq on Dec. 18, 2011.
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Want to do retrospective hypotheticals? Start there.
Want to do retrospective hypotheticals? Start there.
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('' YOUR OPINION IS IMPORTANT TO ME WHAT DO YOU THINK ? '')
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