In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq and toppled the dictatorship of the brutal Saddam Hussein.
The entire international community believed that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) from United Nations (U.N.) inspectors: “United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441 is a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted unanimously by the United Nations Security Council on 8 November 2002, offering Iraq under Saddam Hussein “a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations” that had been set out in several previous resolutions (Resolution 660, Resolution 661, Resolution 678,Resolution 686, Resolution 687, Resolution 688, Resolution 707, Resolution 715, Resolution 986, and Resolution 1284).”
Saddam Hussein had in fact used chemical weapons against his own people (Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq) in the 1990s, and then-President Bill Clinton ordered military strikes against Iraq “to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Their purpose is to protect the national interest of the United States, and indeed the interests of people throughout the Middle East and around the world.”
Although the U.S. did not find WMDs on Iraqi soil, one of Saddam Hussein’s top military advisors revealed that he knows “for a fact” that the WMDs were moved to Syria after Summer 2002 when it became clear that the U.S. would invade Iraq.
Regardless of whether you believe that the U.S. should or shouldn’t have invaded Iraq, the undeniable reality is that Iraq was being transformed into a U.S. ally in the Middle East with democracy, freedom, and prosperity for the Iraqi people. It was a huge opportunity for stability in the Middle East and U.S. national security.
When Bush left office, Iraq was experiencing democratic elections that included women, girls freely attended schools, infrastructure was being built, and there was hope for a bright future.
Iraqi woman proudly poses for a photo after voting in a democratic election in 2005
Iraqi schoolgirls thank U.S. troops for their freedom to get an education in 2006
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed more than 5,000 projects in Iraq from 2004-2011
In 2011, Obama made an unprecedented early withdrawal from Iraq to score political points.
If anything, Iraq– with its history dominated by tyranny and sectarianism– needed an even more extended U.S. presence to ensure stability and support to reconstruct the country. But Obama ignored facts on the ground to increase popularity with his constituents: in denying reality, Obama made an unprecedented early withdrawal from Iraq LESS THAN 10 YEARS AFTER THE U.S. INVADED AND TOPPLED SADDAM HUSSEIN’S REGIME.
This unprecedented, irresponsible early withdrawal betrayed the brave Iraqis who trusted in the United States, and massively jeopardized both Iraqi AND American national security.
In June 2014, radical Islamic terrorists– deemed too extreme even by Al Qaeda– conquered major cities in Iraq and destroyed every single accomplishment of the Bush Administration, turning the sacrifice of thousands of American troops’ lives and billions of dollars into a complete waste.
A mere 6 months later, on June 10, 2014, “Al Qaeda-inspired militants seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city… in a brazen military operation that underscored the weakness of the Baghdad government across vast swaths of the country.” In fact, these radical Islamic militants (read: terrorists), called “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIS), have been deemed too extreme even by Al Qaeda, which perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Because United States troops were absent, “The insurgent fighters who routed the Iraqi army out of Mosul on Tuesday… also gained a windfall of arms, munitions and equipment abandoned by the soldiers as they fled — arms that were supplied by the United States and intended to give the troops an edge over the insurgents.” And ISIS has now become “the richest terror group in the world” after plundering $429 million from a bank in Mosul. In fact, ISIS has morphed from a small terrorist group into a full-blown army.
Less than 24 hours after conquering Mosul, ISIS “seized control of Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit and closed in on the country’s biggest oil refinery… there were fears that the loss of Tikrit could open the way for an assault on Baghdad just 80 miles to the south… As well as Mosul and Tikrit, several other northern towns were reported to have fallen…”
~500,000 Iraqis have been forced to flee from Mosul (Credit: Daily Mail)
American sacrifice of lives and resources has gone to waste: “ISIS militants already control Fallujah, a city that American Marines took in 2004 in what was the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War. Now, with both Mosul and Fallujah under their control, nearly half of Iraq is in the grips of a group that is a formal affiliate of a terrorist group.”
Credit: Daily Mail
ISIS has taken revenge on the judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to the death penalty: “Judge Rauf Rashid, the man who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death, has reportedly been captured and killed by ISIS terrorists…revolutionaries Iraqis arrested him and sentenced him to death in retaliation for the death of the martyr Saddam Hussein…”
Judge Rauf Rashid/Saddam Hussein
Horrors: While Iraqis once trusted in the United States, there are now “mass beheadings reported in northern Iraq as al-Qaeda forces take Mosul and Tikrit”. The roads are lined with decapitated Iraqi police and soldiers… Executions are rampant and broadcast in ISIS propaganda videos… Genocide of Iraqi Shiites by the Sunni ISIS terrorists is ongoing.
Execution shown in an ISIS propaganda video.
GENOCIDE: The systematic execution of Iraqi Shiites by Sunni ISIS terrorists.
Iraq’s ancient Christian community has now been officially wiped out of Mosul by the genocidal ISIS: “After being issued an ultimatum from ISIS in Mosul, some of the city’s last Christian families have fled, only to be robbed of their last possessions at ISIS checkpoints. Friday at noon was the deadline for Christian families to meet ISIS’s demands: Convert to Islam, pay an anachronistic Islamic tax for non-Muslims known as jizya, leave Mosul, or be killed. But the day before the final exodus, Christians were informed jizya was no longer an option. The order came to convert, leave, or die.” Desperate Christians have been “trapped in the desert or on the streets with nowhere to go.” And a “report by Human Rights Watch found that homes in Mosul were painted with the letter “N” for Nasrani (the Arabic word for Christian). Others were painted with the letter “R” for Rafidah, a word commonly used by Sunnis to describe Shiites.” Meanwhile, ISIS has intolerantly blown up Muslim shrines to the prophets Jonah and Seth.
When Obama started his first presidential term in 2009, he foolishly and ironically declared a “new beginning” in the Middle East under his policies. Now, ISIS has created a new map of the Middle East and declared an Islamic caliphate:
A U.S. Congressional report recently found that ISIS “wants its emerging Islamic state to be a launching pad for attacking the U.S. homeland”. And Congressmembers are now slamming the Obama Administration for its dismal Iraq policy failure: “Members of Congress, many of them military veterans who fought in Iraq, pummeled the Obama administration on Thursday for its 2011 troop withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country” and accused Obama of “taking a nap” while Iraq burns. Iraq War veterans are equally angered by the Obama Administration’s failed Iraq policy: ““It’s like a punch in the gut,” is how one Bay Area Iraq War veteran describes news today that Mosul, Tikrit, Ninevah, and so many other Iraqi cities fell to the terrorist army known as ISIS, and its militants are now just 80 miles from Baghdad… “You know it’s really hard, because part of what you learn in the military is mission success, mission accomplishment and never to accept failure,” the two-time Iraq War veteran said. “It can make you feel a lot of loss was in vain.”
It turns out that the Obama Administration saw this catastrophe coming, but did nothing about it– and continues to stand by.
The fledgling Iraqi government alerted the Obama Administration about the ISIS threat and requested airstrikes, but Obama incompetently and stubbornly rejected all pleas and insisted that the U.S. role in Iraq was over: “As the threat from Sunni militants in western Iraq escalated last month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider carrying out airstrikes against extremist staging areas, according to Iraqi and American officials. But Iraq’s appeals for a military response have so far been rebuffed by the White House, which has been reluctant to open a new chapter in a conflict that President Obama has insisted was over when the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011.”
Bizarrely, Obama did not even respond to the Kurdish prime minister’s offer to join forces to defeat ISIS before this situation spiraled out of control: “The prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, says he warned Baghdad and the United States months ago about the threat ISIS posed to Iraq and the group’s plan to launch an insurgency across Iraq. The Kurds even offered to participate in a joint military operation with Baghdad against the jihadists. Washington didn’t respond—a claim that will fuel Republican charges that the Obama administration has been dangerously disengaged from the Middle East.”
In fact, Obama released top ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi from prison in 2009! On his way out, al Baghdadi made an implicit threat to attack Americans on U.S. soil.
In the process of being released from U.S. custody, al Baghdadi made an implicit threat to attack New York, calling to mind the 9/11 attacks: “The Islamist extremist some are now calling the most dangerous man in the world had a few parting words to his captors as he was released from the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq in 2009. “He said, ‘I’ll see you guys in New York,’” recalls Army Col. Kenneth King, then the commanding officer of Camp Bucca.”
Obama’s incompetence and irresponsible behavior as “Commander-in-Chief” placed American contractors in grave danger in Iraq.
On June 13, 2014, American contractors were besieged by ISIS and refused assistance by U.S. military forces: “About 200 Americans under contract with the Department of Defense at Balad Air Force Base in Iraq are trapped by the al-Qaida-inspired jihadists who have seized control of two cities and are now threatening Baghdad, according to WND sources… The U.S. contractors are at Balad to help the Pentagon prepare the facilities for the delivery of the F-16 aircraft the Obama administration has agreed to provide the Iraqi government. The surrounded Americans said they currently are under ISIS fire from small arms, AK47s, and rocket propelled grenades, or RPGs. The contractors so far have been able to hold the base, but those on the scene reported it was only a matter of time before the ISIS terrorists succeeded in breaking through the perimeter… WND has learned from sources that the jihadists have closed down escape routes, and the U.S. Air Force is in a stand-down position. U.S. forces are not assisting even with air cover so a private extradition flight could land for a rescue…”
Now, ISIS terrorists have seized Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons stockpile and nuclear material– and Obama has been forced to send 275 U.S. troops to protect the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. So much for the Iraq War being “over”!
Since 2003, Americans have been repeatedly pounded by liberal Democrats with the “fact” that Saddam Hussein did not have WMDs in Iraq, Bush lied, and there was no justification for the Iraq War. YET, ISIS has seized 90lb (40kg) of radioactive uranium in Iraq which could be used to make a dirty bomb AND “Chemical weapons produced at the Al Muthanna facility, which Isis today seized, are believed to have included mustard gas, Sarin, Tabun, and VX… The remaining chemical weapons from Saddam Hussein’s regime are stored in two sealed bunkers, both located at the Al Muthanna Chemicals Weapons Complex, a large site in the western desert some 80km north west of Baghdad.”
The Obama Administration is so weak, pathetic, and dangerous that it is seriously relying on IRAN to defeat ISIS in Iraq.
“Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the United States would give “a very thorough vetting of every option that is available,” to quell a worsening conflict in Iraq, including drone strikes and cooperating with Iran… Asked Monday whether or not one those options might be military cooperation with Iran, a staunch ally of Iraq President Nouri al-Maliki, Kerry replied, “I wouldn’t rule out anything that would be constructive.””