ISIS Advances in Syria & Iraq Upends US Strategy | Obama: 'We Have Put Our International Relationships on Very Strong Footing'
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By John Ubaldi
Contributor, In Homeland Security
The fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and the Syrian city of Palmyra has placed into question the U.S. strategy for dealing with ISIS.
Contributor, In Homeland Security
The fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and the Syrian city of Palmyra has placed into question the U.S. strategy for dealing with ISIS.
Nukes Along the Sunni-Shia Divide by Glynn Cosker
By Dr. Terry Simmons
Contributor, In Homeland Security
Contributor, In Homeland Security
When the Saudi Royal House snubbed President Obama with their low profile attendance at the GCC conference recently, there was a de facto quid pro quo in play based on an old axiomatic formula in Middle East politics.
By Madison O’Day
Special Contributor to In Homeland Security
The Department of Defense’s newly-released Cyber Strategy isn’t strongly worded by any means, but it does state unambiguously that the U.S. cyber strategy revolves around deterrence. While there is some ambiguous language amounting to a nod in the direction of offensive or retaliatory policies, the primary focus of the strategy is defensive which begs the question – what options do we currently have with deterrence?
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U.S. President Barack Obama says diplomacy, not military action, is the only way to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
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U.S. President Barack Obama sternly warned China Monday that its land reclamation projects in the South China Sea are counterproductive and a threat to Southeast Asian prosperity.
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China on Sunday rejected US demands to stop reclamation works in the South China Sea, saying it was exercising its sovereignty and using the controversial outposts to fulfill international responsibilities.
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US Defense Secretary Ash Carter will spend the next week touring Asia, where he will focus on building up the maritime security capabilities of regional allies.
The largely unexpected victory by opposition candidate Andrzej Duda in the second round of Poland's recent presidential elections could shift Polish military priorities and create more friction with Russia
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Ahead of a House Appropriations Committee markup session set for Tuesday, a senior White House official sent a letter to committee leadership decrying the use of war accounts to pay for routine operations as a "gimmick" and called for a fix for sequestration budget cuts, lest they place national security "at unnecessary risk."
The US military released a video Monday of a Russian Su-24 bomber flying past an American warship in the Black Sea to dispel what it called inaccurate media reports about a routine encounter.
US-led NATO drills began Monday in the Baltic states and Poland, a move intended to reassure Russia's nervous neighbors amid tensions over Ukraine.
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Foreign Policy (blog) |
Riding the Tiger of Anti-US Sentiment
Foreign Policy (blog) Then on May 26, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter called for China to halt its island reclamation activities, calling China “out of step” with international norms and indicating that the U.S. military will continue to operate in the South China ... and more » |
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“In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,” Iraq’s PM Haider al-Abadi said in an interview with Iraqiya state TV on Sunday, reports Agence-France Presse (AFP). “We lost 2300 Humvees in Mosul alone.”
Al-Abadi said his forces had also lost tanks and ammunition to the jihadists, notes NBC News.
“He did not make it clear how much of the equipment had been destroyed and how much of it was left behind, likely to be used by ISIS,” adds the article.
The prime minister reportedly blamed the U.S.-led coalition for losing the military equipment, saying that he asked them for assistance, but “they did not respond quickly.”
ISIS’s capacity to wage attacks and conquer territory likely benefited from the expensive loss in Mosul.
In December 2014, the U.S. Department approved the possible sale of 1000 armored Humvees with machines guns, grenade launchers, and other gear attached to it, estimated to cost $579 million.
Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was seized by ISIS in June 2014. The Sunni terrorist group’s victory fueled an offensive that led them to overrun most of Iraq’s Sunni heartland.
In the process, the jihadists were able to get their hands on numerous weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment, most of it supplied to the Iraqi forces by the United States.
The Islamic State “Has used captured Humvees, which were provided to Iraq by the United States, in subsequent fighting, rigging some with explosives for suicide bombings,” notes AFP.
ISIS was able to seize Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province of Anbar, in mid-May, along with the arms, ammunition, and other military supplies abandoned by the Iraqi forces.
The jihadist group has also been able to seize U.S.-funded weapons through corruption.
A November 2014 report by The New York Times revealed that ISIS has been able to acquire American weapons through the black market.
“Some of the weaponry recently supplied by the army has already ended up on the black market and in the hands of Islamic State fighters, according to Iraqi officers and lawmakers. American officials directed questions to the Iraqi government,” reported the Times.
Meanwhile, Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in northern Iraq complain that the Iraqi government is not supplying them with enough weapons to take on the enemy.
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ISIS captured Ahmed when they caught him planting a bomb near a meeting area for the militants. They dragged him away and proceeded to torture him for two days. The BBC reports:
The mobile phone footage shows Ahmed hanging a foot or so off the ground.He is blindfolded, and two masked men, dressed head to toe in black, pace the ground in front of him. One has a knife and a pistol; the other strides around the room with an AK-47.They hung Ahmed from the ceiling by his arms and then the beating started.
“When they electrocuted me, I used to scream calling for my mother,” he described, elaborating:
But as soon as I did, [one of the torturers] used to up the voltage even more. “Don’t bring your mother in it,” he used to say. They pretend they’re religious, but they’re infidels. They used to smoke. They pretend to be enforcing the rules of Muslims, but they’re not. They hit and kill people.
The terrorists sentenced him to death, but the executioner allowed him to escape. Now, he lives in Turkey, where he still cannot sleep well without experiencing nightmares. The man who filmed militants beating Ahmed handed over the evidence to the BBC but did not explain how ISIS used the video for propaganda.
“I am regretting every moment,” he confessed. “When I joined IS, I wasn’t convinced of it but I had to. Although I wasn’t particularly heavy-handed with people, I hope that the people I hurt will forgive me.”
ISIS also kidnaps children to participate in suicide attacks and force their warped version of Islam onto them.
“Daesh has kidnapped at least 400 children in the western province of Anbar, and taken them to their bases in Iraq, and Syria,” explained Farhan Mohamme, a member of Anbar’s Provincial Council.
Militants kidnapped another 100 from Diyala.
“Daesh has recruited about 100 children under the age of 16,” said Lieutenant General Kasim Al-Saidi, Diyala’s police chief. “They are going to brainwash these kids into being suicide bombers.”
On May 11, Sheikh Shamo, a Kurdish Yazidi member of Iraqi Parliament, reported that ISIS has forced abducted Yazidi children to work as soldiers for the terrorist group. ISIS is known to use children as soldiers. In February, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child claimedthe militants force “mentally handicapped kids into service as suicide bombers.” A video from November displayed militants training child soldiers at a camp in Iraq.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims ISIS also recruited 400 children in 2015 alone. The group targets schools and mosques in areas it controls in Iraq and Syria.
“They use children because it is easy to brainwash them,” explained Rami Abdulrahman, the man in charge of the rights group. “They can build these children into what they want, they stop them from going to school and send them to IS schools instead.”
ISIS calls the children “Cubs of the Caliphate.” A video from February advertised a new training camp for young boys, where the people in charge teach the children about radical Islam and warfare. Another training camp taught children as young as eight-years-old how to properly behead and torture people.
A video in August actually featured Omar al-Shishani, a Chechen leader within ISIS. He appeared openly, without anything covering his face. The children proudly performed for him the chants, songs, and military formations they learned. They also showed him they knew how to balance a gun and aim properly.
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An eye for an eye, reap what you sow, what goes around comes around: choose your favorite aphorism for the wheel of karma turning, as the Christian Post relays a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights about a Syrian Christian fighter beheading an ISIS militant. The veracity of this report has been challenged by the Catholic bishop of Aleppo.
According to the Observatory, “The Christian fighter from the minority Assyrian community, who was not identified, carried out the execution Thursday in the village of Tal Shamiram in Syria’s Hasakeh province, where Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, holds large areas of the countryside.”
This was explicitly done as an act of revenge against ISIS, which is noted for its beheadings, although they are no slouches in various other forms of torture and execution. One of their latest atrocities is a video showing a Syrian prisoner of the Islamic State, clad in the usual orange jumpsuit, being forced to dig his own grave before his head was cut off.
The Christian Post relates the following tally from the Observatory: “ISIS has executed 2,618 people, including 1,511 civilians, since last June, when it declared its ‘caliphate.’ The overall executions included those of 23 children and 32 women. The executions were carried out mostly by beheading, shooting or stoning. ISIS has also executed 139 of its own members for ‘exceeding the limits in religion and spying for foreign countries,’ mostly after they were trying to go back to their homes.”
The Catholic Apostolic vicar of Aleppo, Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, denounced the report of a revenge beheading as “unreliable and unverifiable,” according to the missionary news service Agenzia Fides.
The bishop described the report as a “manipulation of information” intended to “multiply the violence and horrors of this conflict.” He noted that over 230 Assyrian Christians are still held hostage by jihadis, and argued only a “reckless person” would jeopardize their safety by carrying out a revenge beheading.
Khazen further argued that such an act would be contrary to Christian teachings. “We Christians do not justify any revenge or violence with religious issues. The only revenge we know is forgiveness, in order to also be a sign of light for all. Vendettas only deepen the wounds, and lengthen the spiral of hatred,” he explained. “This feeling is in all Christians, especially in the simplest, who live suffering like lambs among wolves: they are the first to say that the vicious circle of violence and revenge must be interrupted by someone, and this is the only way not to succumb and open paths to reconciliation.”
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Never mind the world burning outside your window – President Obama thinks he’s been doing a terrific job on the international front. From the Associated Press:
President Barack Obama is offering a glimpse into how he would want history to judge his presidency by emphasizing the U.S. recovery, his health care law and his foreign policy. His summary was as much legacy building as it was a response to criticism of his tenure from the growing list of Republicans presidential candidates.Obama was asked during a session with Southeast Asian leaders how he would want the world to remember him. He joked: “Fondly, I hope.”Republicans seeking the presidential nomination have been especially critical of Obama’s foreign policy, arguing that the world is more dangerous now than when he took office.Obama argued that his administration has brought new international respect for the U.S. “We have put our international relationships on very strong footing,” he said.
A “recovery” that just gave us a negative 0.7 percent contraction, a health care plan that hasn’t lived up to a single one of its promises – and is bidding to blow health insurance costs into orbit next year – and foreign policy that wiped out America’s influence in virtually every corner of the world, especially the Middle East, where the gains in Iraq were thrown away, and the group Obama misjudged as the “junior varsity league” of terrorism is sacking cities? What’s not to love? Hey, America is more popular in Cuba and Iran now, right?
In fairness, there is no politician on Earth who would answer this sort of “how will history judge you?” question by admitting he or she has been a dismal failure. Obama’s delusional posturing has a particularly dangerous component, however: he confuses popularity with respect.
Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, was weak against domestic political adversaries but enjoyed a measure of respect on the international stage. Obama is the reverse. Our global adversaries, and some opportunistic allies, have learned the key to manipulating this President is that he desperately wants international crises to go away, so he can focus on “transforming” his own country (as he famously put it.) Political capital spent on foreign crises becomes unavailable for his domestic agenda. Foreign policy can be notoriously unforgiving. Among other things, the media establishments of other countries are far less indulgent of Obama than America’s is.
Another important tool for foreign governments looking to manipulate Obama is his gigantic ego. Say nice things about him personally, most especially including praise as a “transformative” or “historic” figure, and he’ll give away the store. His obsession with the “grievances” of various oppressed groups makes him less than 100 percent eager to take his own country’s side without reserve. He kicked off his presidency with a global apology tour, and it was duly noted by leaders who have absolutely no interest in apologizing for any part of their national history.
They’ve also noticed that his response to Americans kidnapped and brutalized overseas involves hopping off the links to deliver brief boilerplate statements. Obama, and his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were primarily concerned with what their domestic political opponents would make of their hideous bungle in Benghazi. They never quite appreciated what message it was sending to the rest of the world about their lazy ineptitude, their obsession with spin and messaging, and their lack of resolve. No one should be able to get away with killing an American ambassador, but someone did.
The Iranians certainly learned all of this, along with correctly anticipating – or, perhaps, being quietly told behind the scenes – of Obama’s plan to set them up as a Middle Eastern nuclear hegemon. The mullahs noticed how he fumbled the Green Revolution against them. The crazy thing about Iranians is that they don’t really put any effort into flattering Obama – they find a new way to insult him nearly every day, treating his “nuclear deal” with undisguised contempt and loudly announcing their intention to violate its most important terms. They know he can’t walk away – he can’t handle the hit to his prestige, and he most especially can’t tolerate the notion of his critics being proven correct.
As for the rest of the world, well, they’ve noticed “regime change” is something Obama reserves for America’s allies. Obama’s team never has understood the damage to American prestige caused by their relentless campaign against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They’ve blithely assumed factions that dislike Netanyahu would be grateful to Obama for trying to get rid of him. In truth, most of those inclined to applaud Netanyahu’s ouster want Israel to suffer far worse than any American president can tolerate, so their gratitude was bound to be very short-lived if Obama had succeeded.
The Muslim Brotherhood government Obama supported in Egypt is gone, but his role in bringing it to power has not been forgotten. The Saudis think so little of this President that they launched a military invention in Yemen without telling him, because they feared he would spill the beans to Iran. The only firm stance Obama ever took against aggression was in Syria, and the upshot was the phrase “red line” becoming a pathetic joke. Libya is an unholy disaster. When Boko Haram took slaves, Team Obama responded with placards and frowny-face selfies. American influence in Eastern Europe has deteriorated to the point that NATO must reassure its members that they really will respond to an attack against them. China is busy writing up a new world order with itself as top nation.
Of course some of the people taking America to the cleaners in the Age of Obama make an effort to talk about him in glowing personal terms. He’s the best thing that ever happened to them. They understand that vain people have a great deal of trouble distinguishing between the sweet candy of popularity and the rougher, but more nourishing, meal of respect.
How will history judge Obama? Who cares? It’s how the present is judging him that should scare us out of wits. It’s also hard to avoid noticing that his prospective Democrat successors aren’t exactly treating him as a model President whose policies they intend to emulate.
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