Patterico's Pontifications

6/22/2014

No Whac-A-Mole

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:49 am



[guest post by Dana]

This morning, President Obama stated that ISIS is just one of a number of terrorist organizations that threaten the United States that we will need to “focus” on.

“Their extreme ideology poses a medium and long-term threat,” the president said, of the group now taking control of large swaths of Iraq.

He added that the immediate problem is that ISIS is ”destabilizing a country that could spill over,” but they are “just one of a number of organizations that we need to stay focused on,” including al-Qaeda in Yemen and Boko Haram.

“What we can’t do is think that we’re just gonna play whac-a-mole and send U.S. troops occupying various countries wherever these organizations pop up,” Obama said.

Also:

The president rejected the idea that the power “vacuum” in Syria, and thus the current threat from ISIS, could have been averted if the U.S. had backed moderate rebels in Syria against Bashar Assad.

“I think this notion that somehow there was this ready-made moderate Syrian force that was ready to defeat al-Assad was simply not true,” he said. “The idea that they could have defeated” Assad and jihadist groups, he added, “if we just sent a few arms, was a fantasy.”

–Dana

30 Responses to “No Whac-A-Mole”

  1. #BuyaClueBarckyObama

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  2. this man is an absolute genius at F*cking Things Up.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  3. I wonder if isis is more of a threat to the US than the tea party?

    Maybe he can sic the irs on them.

    How much of our tax money does isis get through the palestine authority?

    Jim (145e10)

  4. Watch: the option are so bad now that before you know it, Obama will be signing onto Putin’s agenda and backing Assad and the Iranians. Unless he can find a worse option.

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  5. I think I missed this, if this is the CBS interview by Norah O’Donnell. I tuned nto to Face the Nation about ten minutes into the show. More of it will be shown on CBS This MMorning tomorrow. Nora O’Donnell conducted the entire show. Bob Schieffer will be back next WEEK.

    I had wanted to say that maybe Bob Schieffer or hsi show really was going to discuss these questions.

    Mikes Morell and Rogers both agreed that this was not an intelligence failure – they tracked the growth of ISIS.

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  6. What are the Israelis thinking? Probably not “Obama has our back.”

    Kevin M (b357ee)

  7. “Their extreme ideology poses a medium and long-term threat,”

    I like how he uses the qualifier of “medium.”

    If he were instead talking about Republicans or the Tea Party, I bet he wouldn’t have any problem saying “MAJOR…threat.”

    “I think this notion that somehow there was this ready-made moderate Syrian force that was ready to defeat al-Assad was simply not true,”

    So why didn’t he come out several months ago and say that the rebels were as bad as, if not worse than, Bashar al-Assad?

    That was one instance when I heartily, strongly didn’t think we should stick our noses into the tribal conflict going on in Syria. But when even anti-war liberals like Obama and his ilk could have made that argument, they were strangely quiet or far less vocal against our getting involved in that than they were about the blood-for-oil war with Iraq and George W Bush. Perhaps they felt kinship with the uber-liberal government and politicians of France who’ve long chomped at the bit to get rid of Syria’s president?

    Mark (246552)

  8. 3. Jim (145e10) — 6/22/2014 @ 11:02 am

    I wonder if isis is more of a threat to the US than the tea party?

    President Barack Obama called it I.S.I.L. (pronouncing each letter, i.e. eye-ess-eye-ell.) Secretary of State John Kerry is pronouncing it ISIL (eye-sill)

    The U.S. government insists on sticking to its own style book, just like it ccalled Osma bin Laden “Usama bin Laden” and you’ll find it that way on all U.s. government documents,

    The New York Times had a whole article Thursday on what to call this, in which they printed some Arabic – the first time I’ve seen that)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/world/middleeast/islamic-state-in-iraq-and-syria-or-islamic-state-in-iraq-and-the-levant.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&_r=0

    By the way the Wall Street Journal uses OF not IN.

    That’s another distinction.

    Most people seem to use OF, not IN as the New York Times has it.

    Maybe he can sic the irs on them.

    How much of our tax money does isis get through the palestine authority?

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  9. Kevin M (b357ee) — 6/22/2014 @ 11:08 am

    Unless he can find a worse option.

    Right now U.S. policy is to hope Iran will get behind a national unity government in Iraq, on the grounds, I gues,s that that’s in Iran’s interest..

    Kind of like expecting Stalin to support the selection of Winston Churchill as
    British Prime Minister in 1940.

    Iran is now reporting to be interested in getting rid of Maliki. That’s true. he reprotedly was dressed down by the head of the Quds force in front of his own people.

    But I suspect that what they want is their own puppet.

    What could be worse?

    Well, let’s see.

    1. Iran and ISIS reach a peace agreement, in which they agree to divide the Middle East between them.

    2. Iran uses an atomic bonb to defend Baghdad.

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  10. Maybe he can sic the irs on them.

    How much of our tax money does isis get through the palestine authority?

    Isis actually claimed responsibility for that kidnapping.

    The Palestinian Authority is probably not doing anything for ISIS. They are their targets.

    A fight even broke out between ISIS and its Sunni allies in some locality in Iraq. There is a conflict in the sources over what that was all about, or even if it hapepn3ed.

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  11. Mike Morell noted that the blitzkrieg toward Baghdad seems to have stopped and ISIS was consolidating territory (and seemed to implythat was abid of good news)

    Mike Rogers seems to think that was bad news. It indicated thoughtful action, which is not so usual with an army on the mve.

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  12. this is kinda like when they ask the bimbos questions at the beauty pageants

    happyfeet (8ce051)

  13. except the bimbos are also expected to have a demonstrable talent as well…

    Ear Leader lacks that.

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  14. of course, we need to go easy on the Great Won, as he only learned about this problem when he read it in the newspaper yesterday…

    Presentdenting be hard, yo!

    redc1c4 (abd49e)

  15. The New Yor Post has two articles about two different books today.

    One says Iran was responsible for Benghazi (and therefore that it is secretly allied with Sunni militia.)

    Another says Hillary was shocked that Obama wanted to go with the video story when she called him around 10 pm September 11, 2012. It says she mentioned the fact that this occured on Sept 11 but he was not dissuaded. It says she called up Bill Clinton for advice, and Bill Clinton said this was an impossible story.. (source: a “legal adviser” to Hillary Clinton)

    This book would seem to imply that Obama or someone in the White House made up the video story, but we know that is not true. It was being said by the attackers.

    One key question: Did the “al Sharia” Facebook post blame the video? Does anybody have a translation of that Facebook posting? It seem like maybe somebody needs to file a FOIA request to get the text of that Facebook posting. The state Department must have had it, and they surely didn’t destroy all their copies.

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  16. Right, no more whack-a-mole, just stay in the White House and gaze.

    Then ponder.

    Then ruminate.

    Then ponder some more.

    Oops, New York just blew up!

    Patricia (5fc097)

  17. Well they’ve hit New York twice, I know Al Baghdadi said ‘see you in New York’ so it occurs they would first hit another target they’ve tried for before, DC, or the West Coast,

    http://hotair.com/archives/2014/06/22/obamas-former-spy-chief-we-made-very-clear-isis-a-growing-threat-to-u-s/

    narciso (3fec35)

  18. narciso, how many times did they re-attack the WTC?

    Steve57 (334088)

  19. ISIL is “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”, which is what the BBC usually calls ISIS.

    “Medium”? Maybe, on a scale of McVeigh to Hitler.

    Syria? I suspect we would have ended up arming ISIS and al-Nusra if we “helped” but didn’t launch a full-scale invasion.
    Given how Iraq and Libya are going (and what happened after we helped Afghanistan against the Russians), and the American political system (don’t exect the US to form a policy that survives two presidencies), even then we would probably leave before it was stable.
    If a president wants to make a victory stick, they’ll need a long-term treaty, since nothing else will survive long enough.
    So Obama’s probably correct at this point–more correct than he was a year ago…
    On the other hand, don’t make threats unless you’ve already planned out the response, and considered what will happen then.

    Anyone remember Palin’s line?

    So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?

    But that doesn’t necessarily extrapolate to Iraq.
    In hindsight, maybe invading Iraq wasn’t the ideal course (note my comment about our politics), but it presently looks to me like our best course for the future would involve a pretty hefty attack on ISIS.

    Ibidem (34e45a)

  20. Once, and they have continued against JFK, the Path train, Times Square, just a few that come to mindl

    http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/06/kerry-u-s-not-responsible-for-current-iraq-crisis/

    narciso (3fec35)

  21. We were warned…..

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  22. Whackjob Sh!tforbrains would not make a decent can of Alpo.

    gary gulrud (46ca75)

  23. 25- But, it would be appropriate.

    askeptic (8ecc78)

  24. 21. Comment by Ibidem (34e45a) — 6/22/2014 @ 4:20 pm

    ISIL is “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”, which is what the BBC usually calls ISIS.

    I think most people use OF and not IN.

    The New York Times said, that although the BBS says Levant, when the BBS uses an acronym, it is ISIS.

    “Medium”? Maybe, on a scale of McVeigh to Hitler.

    Medium- term.

    In other words it would be at least 2-3 years before they could begin, or at least successfully complete, an attack on New York, trending more toward five to ten years, because for now, they are pre-occupied with amassing territory in the Middle East, and don’t want to get the United States involved.

    Eventually, there’d a strong interest in administering a humiliating blow to the United States, so that people there wouldn’t have hope the United States would come to their rescue. The best way is to attack the United States itself, and its military, and have the Unoted States do nothing effective. (it didn’t quite work out that way on September 11, 2001)

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  25. Syria? I suspect we would have ended up arming ISIS and al-Nusra if we “helped” but didn’t launch a full-scale invasion.

    We were actually arming Islamic rebels, but probably not ISIS.

    http://www.npr.org/2012/10/11/162754053/transcript-biden-ryan-vice-presidential-debate

    REP. RYAN: ….So the longer this has gone on, the more people — groups like al-Qaida are going in. We could have more easily identified the Free Syrian Army, the freedom fighters, working with our allies, the Turks [!?], the Qataris, [!!!} the Saudis, [!!] had we had a better plan in place to begin with, working through our allies. But no, we waited for Kofi Annan to try and come up with an agreement through the U.N. That bought Bashar Assad time. We gave Russia veto power over our efforts through the U.N. and meanwhile about 30,000 Syrians are dead.

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: What would my friend do differently? If you notice, he never answers the question.

    REP. RYAN: No, I would — I — we would not be going through the U.N. on all of these things —

    VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Let — let — let me — you don’t go through the U.N. We are in the process now and have been for months in making sure that help, humanitarian aid, as well as other aid and training, is getting to those forces that we believe, the Turks believe, the Jordanians believe, the Saudis believe [!!] are the free forces inside of Syria.

    http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/10/22/transcript-president-obama-mitt-romney-in-final-presidential-debate-at-lynn-university/

    ROMNEY: …. And so the right course for us, is working through our partners and with our own resources, to identify responsible parties within Syria, organize them, bring them together in a — in a form of — if not government, a form of — of — of council that can take the lead in Syria….We need to make sure as well that we coordinate this effort with our allies, and particularly with — with Israel.

    But the Saudi’s [!!] and the Qatari, [!!!] and — and the Turks are all very concerned about this. They’re willing to work with us. We need to have a very effective leadership effort in Syria, making sure that the – the insurgent there are armed and that the insurgents that become armed, are people who will be the responsible parties…

    …We should be playing the leadership role there, not on the ground with military….

    …OBAMA: We are playing the leadership role. We organized the Friends of Syria. We are mobilizing humanitarian support, and support for the opposition. And we are making sure that those we help are those who will be friends of ours in the long term and friends of our allies in the region over the long term.

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  26. If a president wants to make a victory stick, they’ll need a long-term treaty, since nothing else will survive long enough.

    Maybe. What has stuck seems to go back to the Truman or the Eisenhower Adminsitation. NATO. A treaty with Japan. A treaty with Taiwan, although Jimmy Carter tore it up.

    But things without treaties also last. Troops in South Korea. From the Kennedy Administration: The continuing economic boycott of Cuba. From the Johnson Administration: A committment to military superiority for Israel.

    On the other hand, SEATO and CENTO didn’t turn out so well. There are things that carry
    forth from administration to Administration. You could say maybe troops need a treaty, but I think they are in South Korea without a treaty.

    Sammy Finkelman (107dde)

  27. Greetings:

    Okay, no “whack-a-mole”. What about “whack-a-pickup” ???

    11B40 (6abb5c)


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