Patterico's Pontifications

6/13/2014

Obama: Violence in Iraq Stems from the Majority in Government Not Listening to the Minority

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:17 pm



Obama:

Part of the challenge — and I’ve said this directly to Prime Minister Maliki, and Vice President Biden has said this in his very frequent interactions with the Iraqi government — is that the politics of Shia and Sunni inside of Iraq, as well as the Kurds, is either going to be a help in dealing with this jihadist situation or it’s going to be a hindrance. And frankly, over the last several years, we have not seen the kind of trust and cooperation develop between moderate Sunni and Shia leaders inside of Iraq, and that accounts in part for some of the — the — the weakness of the state, and that then carries over into their military capacity.

So I think it’s fair to say that, in our consultations with the Iraqis, there will be some short-term, immediate things that need to be done militarily.

And you know, our national security team is looking at all the options. But this should be also a wake-up call for the Iraqi government. There has to be a political component to this so that Sunni and Shia who care about building a functioning state that can bring about security and prosperity to all people inside of Iraq come together and work diligently against these extremists. And that is going to require concessions on the part of both Shia and Sunni that we haven’t seen so far.

I think he just said that the majority government needs to make concessions in order to end the violence perpetrated by the minority — because the minority feels so excluded from the government that it feels the need to resort to insurrection.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see this logic applied to American politics?

I am not saying that it is morally justified for fiscal conservatives to rebel against the U.S. government.

But I think Barack Obama just did.

22 Responses to “Obama: Violence in Iraq Stems from the Majority in Government Not Listening to the Minority”

  1. That is, if you apply his logic.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. Yes, he did do that. The joke is that Obama would do just what Maliki did, IF he could get away with it.

    Chances are he’ll fail at this and maybe even do it spectacularly, but that will require some competence, which we all know he has a meager supply of.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  3. He is an idiot. Objectively.

    JD (a101d6)

  4. Mr. ‘I Won’, says this with a straight face, now looking it from Maliki’a perspective, the Sunni when they were in charge, drove the Shia and the Kurd, out of the professions, out of politics, out of the country, it took the Strongest Tribe’ as Bing West called the American military to keep Maliki in check

    narciso (3fec35)

  5. “Do as I say, not as I do!” snaps the Empty Chair.

    htom (412a17)

  6. What did we go and do to those people?

    nk (dbc370)

  7. They need to be more inclusive.

    JD (a101d6)

  8. you americans just frittered away something shy of $800 billion or so, conservatively estimated, on a handful of warm sh*t, not accounting for all the dead and maimed, uniformed and civilian

    good job, losers

    Nice work.

    You are definitely exceptional.

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  9. Mainly because TFG declined to agree on a “status of forces” and throwing it all away, quite disgracefully. Wars end when he decrees it , doncha know?

    Gazzer (6a76d0)

  10. See Abu Dua, didn’t get the memo, btw, this guy is like a clerk compared to the Taliban 5,

    narciso (3fec35)

  11. We turned the lives of 27 million people upside down, killed a 100,000 thousand, while passing laws against demeaning gays. And please don’t tell me “Saddam Hussein”. They didn’t elect him but we elected the Shrub and the SCOAMF. WTF are we doing?

    nk (dbc370)

  12. This al Baghdadi, head of ISIS, released by Sh!tforbrains in 2009, is tagged as the next Osama.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  13. 11. In the long run, we are fixing to make the other poor dumb bastard die for his religion.

    Religion used in the most general sense, your Higher Power as you conceive.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  14. Actually, Pat, he’s saying something worse.

    He’s saying that the Progressives in government aren’t listening to “the minority”, so that justifies the KKK to start killing everyone they hate.

    This may sound like a non sequitur to you, but apparently it isn’t to Obama.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  15. Better to incorporate than struggle to extirpate. It worked with the Democrats and blacks.

    nk (dbc370)

  16. It appears we are looking at the desperate last days of Viet Nam all over again in Iraq. God help the remaining embassy staff, the American contractors, and the Iraqis who worked with and for America.

    http://weaselzippers.us/189773-americans-contractors-reportedly-stranded-in-iraq-obama-regime-too-politically-sensitive-to-evacuate-our-embassy/

    elissa (b8c655)

  17. Matthew Continetti:

    To assign responsibility for American incompetence to President Obama’s National Security Council is to miss the target. The NSC is a symptom of the dysfunction, not its cause. Behind our endless series of foreign-policy screw-ups—Benghazi, Snowden, Syria, Crimea, Bergdahl, Iraq—is not Obama’s team. It’s Obama.

    The Obama foreign policy is best represented not by the famous national security “Team of Rivals” of Obama’s first term, but by the team of yes men and incompetents of his second. Gates, Panetta, Clinton, and Petraeus are celebrities who had the wit and stature to disagree with Obama. Kerry, Rice, Hagel—this collection of loyalists and losers (quite literally in Kerry’s case) is incapable of disagreement with the president because he handpicked them for their subservience.

    elissa (b8c655)

  18. Very strange to hear republican values expressed by the leader of a Banana Republic.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  19. “…and losers (quite literally in Kerry’s case)…”

    Haaahahahahaaa, with normal people that would leave a mark.

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (9940a5)

  20. His reasoning is straight out of Peace Studies 101. No one has evil intent; they just are reacting to the disrespect of others. So if the Sunni will just hold hands with the Shia, despite a millenium of war, they can form a nice little parliamentary government and get on with life!

    I’m sure the Iraqis appreciate his lecture.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  21. Pol Pot was a piker. The war to anoint the Caliph is the fuse of Armageddeon and she’s lit.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0948 secs.