Tag Archives: President Obama

The US Government’s Not-So-Secret Support for Al Qaeda and ISIS, by Dan Sanchez

Posted on June 9, 2015 | Leave a comment

All of the US’s Sunni allies in the Middle East, and Israel, want to get rid of Bashar al-Assad. The only problem is that the only force that has a chance of deposing Assad is ISIS, which is an offshoot and ally of al-Queda, which are the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack. Dan Sanchez highlights the absurdity and hypocrisy of the US position in Syria, at antiwar.org:

“9/11: Never forget,” the tee-shirts insisted. “Have you forgotten how it felt that day?” the country crooner warbled. “September 11th… global terrorists!” the candidate for President of 9/11 endlessly repeated.

Such reminders are provided to this day whenever reductions of the swollen national security state are proposed and need to be fended off with a fresh round of fear-mongering. And proponents of such reductions are smeared as friends of the terrorists.

Because President Obama is deemed not aggressive enough in pursuing the war on the Islamist movement responsible for 9/11, even he is accused by his loonier critics of being a “secret Muslim” and a “ terr-symp” (terrorist sympathizer).

Given all this, you would think right-wing nationalists would be alert to and aghast at abundant reports that their own government has knowingly supported Islamic extremists in Syria (and elsewhere), including al-Qaeda, the very group responsible for 9/11; especially since that support led to the rise of ISIS (formerly al-Qaeda in Iraq, or AQI) and that such a treasonous policy has long occurred under “crypto-Muslim” Barack Hussein Obama. But, oddly enough, they’ve given Obama a free pass on this.

Why hasn’t Fox News been blasting alerts like “Obama Backs Muslim Terrorists, Helping to Create the Islamic State” for years? Wouldn’t their xenophobic viewers gobble up such red meat with relish? Couldn’t the Republicans make stacks of political hay with such a talking point?

But, no, apparently bigotry and scaremongering are only to be harnessed to support war, and never to oppose it. The right’s criticism of Obama’s Syria policy has been that he hasn’t supported the al-Qaeda/ISIS-led Syrian opposition enough. Apparently, the lesson of 9/11 is that we must embrace perpetual war, even if it means fighting with the perpetrators of 9/11 in that war.

Washington hawks have deflected such criticism by denying that al-Qaeda and ISIS are that dominant in Syria, or that foreign support of the opposition helped lead to the 2014 rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Such deflections have been made increasingly untenable by mounting evidence, and especially by the recent disclosure of an incredibly damning Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report from August 2012.

http://original.antiwar.com/dan_sanchez/2015/06/08/the-us-governments-not-so-secret-support-for-al-qaeda-and-isis/

To continue reading: The US Government’s Not-So-Secret Support for Al Qaeda and ISIS

See also “Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A “Tool” To Overthrow Syria’s President Assad,” SLL, 5/24/15

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Obama Sidelines Kerry On Ukraine Policy, by Eric Zuesse

Posted on June 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Eric Zuesse, via zerohedge.com:

On May 21st, I headlined “Secretary of State John Kerry v. His Subordinate Victoria Nuland, Regarding Ukraine,” and quoted John Kerry’s May 12th warning to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to cease his repeated threats to invade Crimea and re-invade Donbass, two former regions of Ukraine, which had refused to accept the legitimacy of the new regime that was imposed on Ukraine in violent clashes during February 2014. (These were regions that had voted overwhelmingly for the Ukrainian President who had just been overthrown. They didn’t like him being violently tossed out and replaced by his enemies.)

Kerry said then that, regarding Poroshenko, “we would strongly urge him to think twice not to engage in that kind of activity, that that would put Minsk in serious jeopardy. And we would be very, very concerned about what the consequences of that kind of action at this time may be.” Also quoted there was Kerry’s subordinate, Victoria Nuland, three days later, saying the exact opposite, that we “reiterate our deep commitment to a single Ukrainian nation, including Crimea, and all the other regions of Ukraine.” I noted, then that, “The only person with the power to fire Nuland is actually U.S. President Barack Obama.” However, Obama instead has sided with Nuland on this.

Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, bannered, on June 5th, “Poroshenko: Ukraine Will ‘Do Everything’ To Retake Crimea’,” and reported that, “President Petro Poroshenko has vowed to seek Crimea’s return to Ukrainian rule. … Speaking at a news conference on June 5, … Poroshenko said that ‘every day and every moment, we will do everything to return Crimea to Ukraine.’” Poroshenko was also quoted there as saying, “It is important not to give Russia a chance to break the world’s pro-Ukrainian coalition,” which indirectly insulted Kerry for his having criticized Poroshenko’s warnings that he intended to invade Crimea and Donbass.

Right now, the Minsk II ceasefire has broken down and there are accusations on both sides that the other is to blame. What cannot be denied is that at least three times, on April 30th, then on May 11th, and then on June 5th, Poroshenko has repeatedly promised to invade Crimea, which wasn’t even mentioned in the Minsk II agreement; and that he was also promising to re-invade Donbass, something that is explicitly prohibited in this agreement. Furthermore, America’s President, Barack Obama, did not fire Kerry’s subordinate, Nuland, for her contradicting her boss on this important matter.

How will that be taken in European capitals? Kerry was reaffirming the position of Merkel and Hollande, the key shapers of the Minsk II agreement; and Nuland was nullifying them. Obama now has sided with Nuland on this; it’s a slap in the face to the EU: Poroshenko can continue ignoring Kerry and can blatantly ignore the Minsk II agreement; and Obama tacitly sides with Poroshenko and Nuland, against Kerry.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-07/obama-sidelines-kerry-ukraine-policy

To continue reading: Obama Sidelines Kerry On Ukraine Policy

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Why Islamic State Is Winning, by Daniel Lazare

Posted on May 24, 2015 | 1 comment

A good analysis of why Islamic State is winning in Syria and Iraq, by Daniel Lazare at consortiumnews.com:

Exclusive: The Saudi-Israeli alliance and U.S. neocons have pressured President Obama into continuing U.S. hostility toward the secular Syrian government despite major military gains by the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, leading to an emerging catastrophe in the Mideast, as Daniel Lazare explains.

President Barack Obama and his foreign policy staff are not having a very merry month of May. The Islamic State’s takeover of Ramadi, Iraq, on May 15 was one of the greatest U.S. military embarrassments since Vietnam, but the fall of Palmyra, Syria, just five days later made it even worse. This is an administration that, until recently, claimed to have turned the corner on Islamic State.

In March, Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, assured the House Armed Services Committee that the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL or Daesh) was in a “defensive crouch” and unable to conduct major operations, while Vice President Joe Biden declared in early April that “ISIL’s momentum in Iraq has halted, and in many places, has been flat-out reversed.”

A couple of weeks later, the President proved equally upbeat following a meeting with Iraqi leader Haider al-Abadi: “We are making serious progress in pushing back ISIL out of Iraqi territory. About a quarter of the territory fallen under Daesh control has been recovered. Thousands of strikes have not only taken ISIL fighters off the war theater, but their infrastructure has been deteriorated and decayed. And under Prime Minister Abadi’s leadership, the Iraqi security forces have been rebuilt and are getting re-equipped, retrained, and strategically deployed across the country.”

But that was so last month. Post-Ramadi, conservatives like Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, have lost no time in labeling such views out of touch and “delusional.” And, indeed, Obama sounded strangely detached on Tuesday when he told The Atlantic that ISIS’s advance was not a defeat.

“No, I don’t think we’re losing,” he said, adding: “There’s no doubt there was a tactical setback, although Ramadi had been vulnerable for a very long time, primarily because these are not Iraqi security forces that we have trained or reinforced.” It was rather like the captain of the Titanic telling passengers that the gash below the waterline was a minor opening that would soon be repaired.

Not that the rightwing view is any less hallucinatory. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, faults Obama for not doing more to topple the Assad regime in Damascus, as if removing the one effective force against ISIS would be greeted with anything less than glee by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his hordes.

“We don’t have a strategy,” House Speaker John Boehner complained on Tuesday. “For over two years now, I’ve been calling on the President to develop an overarching strategy to deal with this growing terrorist threat. We don’t have one, and the fact is that the threat is growing than what we and our allies can do to stop it.” But when asked what a winning strategy might be, the House Speaker could only reply, “It’s the President’s responsibility.” In other words, Boehner is as clueless as anyone else.

In fact, the entire foreign-policy establishment is clueless, just as it was in 2003 when it all but unanimously backed President George W. Bush’s disastrous invasion of Iraq. Both Republicans and Democrats are caught in a disastrous feedback loop in which journalists and aides tell them what they want to hear and resolutely screen out everything to the contrary. But facts have a way of asserting themselves whether Washington wants them to or not.

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/05/23/why-islamic-state-is-winning/

To continue reading: Why Islamic State Is Winning

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Obama’s Petulant WWII Snub of Russia, by Ray McGovern

Posted on May 9, 2015 | 2 comments

Most Americans think that D-Day and Operation Overlord turned the tide in World War II and led to the allied victory. Most Americans are wrong. The tide had already turned, on the Eastern Front, where the Russians had stopped the German advance in 1943 at Stalingrad (at 1 million plus casualties probably the bloodiest battle in the history of warfare) and by June 6, 1944, were routing them back to Germany. The numbers do not lie. The US lost 139,000 dead in the European theater. The USSR lost over 26 million fighting the German invasion, including 10 million soldiers, but inflicted 75 to 80 percent of Axis casualties. Germany had 60 understrength divisions on the Western front to counter the Allied Normandy invasion, with 214 divisions still fighting on the Eastern Front against the advancing Soviets.

The Soviet contribution to defeating Japan is often overlooked as well. While the American effort is undoubtedly foremost in the Pacific theatre, the USSR unleashed a huge offensive from Outer Mongolia to Korea that enveloped Japan’s 600,000-man, 25 division Kwantung Army.

Given the Soviet contribution to the Allied victory and the losses the USSR bore in World War II, it is incomprehensible that President Obama and various European leaders are refusing to attend this week’s Victory Parade in Moscow to commemorate the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany 70 years ago. They were all invited, but only Angela Merkel, the leader of the defeated nation, is attending—one day after the parade—to place a wreath at a memorial for the war dead.

There would have been a lot more French, British, and American war dead had it not been for the Russians, and it is a gratitous snub for the leaders of those countries not to attend, regardless of what is happening in Ukraine. On that score, it is incomprehensible that Western leaders do not recognize Russian sensitivity about the nation on its doorstep, through which Hitler invaded. Both the snub and the tension over Ukraine are driving Russia into closer relationships with China, India (leaders of both nations are attending the parade), and other Asian and emerging market nations.

For a full accounting of the USSR’s contributions and losses during World War II, see “The Grisly Truth About How World War II Was Won.” For one of the few intelligent analyses out there of the Ukraine situation, see “Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault,” by John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago. His article was published in the September/October, 2014, issue of Foreign Affairs and has been completely ignored. For an analysis on how the Western powers are driving China and Russia closer, see “Isolated—China and Russia Demonstrate Closer Relationship with Joint Military Exercises,” from Michael Kreiger at libertyblitzkrieg.com. Finally, for an excoriating look at the stupidity of our spoiled brat president, “Obama’s Petulant WWII Snub of Russia,” read the following from Ray McGovern at antiwar.com:

President Barack Obama’s decision to join other Western leaders in snubbing Russia’s weekend celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe looks more like pouting than statesmanship, especially in the context of the U.S. mainstream media’s recent anti-historical effort to downplay Russia’s crucial role in defeating Nazism.

Though designed to isolate Russia because it had the audacity to object to the Western-engineered coup d’état in Ukraine on Feb. 22, 2014, this snub of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin – like the economic sanctions against Russia – is likely to backfire on the U.S. and its European allies by strengthening ties between Russia and the emerging Asian giants of China and India.

Notably, the dignitaries who will show up at this important commemoration include the presidents of China and India, representing a huge chunk of humanity, who came to show respect for the time seven decades ago when the inhumanity of the Nazi regime was defeated – largely by Russia’s stanching the advance of Hitler’s armies, at a cost of 20 to 30 million lives.

Obama’s boycott is part of a crass attempt to belittle Russia and to cram history itself into an anti-Putin, anti-Russian alternative narrative. It is difficult to see how Obama and his friends could have come up with a pettier and more gratuitous insult to the Russian people.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel – caught between Washington’s demand to “isolate” Russia over the Ukraine crisis and her country’s historic guilt in the slaughter of so many Russians – plans to show up a day late to place a wreath at a memorial for the war dead.

But Obama, in his childish display of temper, will look rather small to those who know the history of the Allied victory in World War II. If it were not for the Red Army’s costly victories against the German invaders, particularly the tide-turning battle at Stalingrad in 1943-1944, the prospects for the later D-Day victory in Normandy in June 1944 and the subsequent defeat of Adolf Hitler would have been much more difficult if not impossible.

Yet, the current Russia-bashing in Washington and the mainstream U.S. media overrides these historical truths. For instance, a New York Times article by Neil MacFarquhar on Friday begins: “The Russian version of Hitler’s defeat emphasizes the enormous, unrivaled sacrifices made by the Soviet people to end World War II …” But that’s not the “Russian version”; that’s the history.

http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2015/05/08/obamas-petulant-wwii-snub-of-russia/

To continue reading: Obama’s Petulant WWII Snub of Russia

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He Said That? 4/3/15

Posted on April 3, 2015 | 1 comment

President Barack Obama, hailing a “historic understanding”—the nuclear framework negotiated between Iran and the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China:

I am convinced that if this framework leads to a final, comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer. This has been a long time coming.

The Wall Street Journal, “Iran Agrees to Outline of Deal,” 4/3/15.

For a deal to be reached, not one, but two major trust issues need to be resolved. There is skepticism that Iran will comply with a deal, and won’t secretly develop nuclear weaponry. That issue can only be resolved after a deal is reached, if it happens. However, before it does, there is the other trust issue: can Barack Obama be trusted? Call it blowback from the Affordable Care Act, but neither Republicans in Congress nor a substantial portion of the American people believe him. He lied, repeatedly, to get that legislation passed, made no effort to work with Republicans, who voted unanimously against it, and teamed with congressional Democrats and resorted to dubious legislative legerdemain to get the law to his desk. Millions of Americans discovered, contrary to Obama and Democrats’ assurances, that they were not be able to keep their insurance plans and doctors, and that they were paying much more for inferior plans.

The Iranian agreement may be a work of statesmanship, but it is going to be a tough sell to the American people, and Obama has made his job immeasurably tougher by having no reservoir of credibility to draw on. It’s not just Obamacare and other lies, but his overall modus operandi. He’s autocratic, ruling by executive order on important issues, bypassing Congress, and thereby skirting the Constitution. Although he may not need Congressional approval for the agreement, Congress can make things very difficult for him. Pro-negotiations commentators have disparaged Benjamin Netanyahu’s congressional appearance, Senator Tom Cotton’s letter to Iranian leaders, and proposed legislation that would require congressional approval of the agreement (which Obama has threatened to veto). If a meritorious agreement fails to go through, the Republicans, Netanyahu, and the Israeli lobby may deserve some of the blame, but not all of it. Republicans can hardly be blamed, after six years of lies and presidential imperiousness, if their response to Obama’s: “Trust me on this one” is a decisive: “No way.” What goes around comes around. Obama may have already doomed his opportunity to thaw the frosty US-Iran relationship, peacefully stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and give himself a signature accomplishment at the end of his administration that would belatedly justify his Nobel Peace Prize.

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The War On Preppers: Obama Bans Ammo For The Most Popular Rifle In America, by Michael Snyder

Posted on March 1, 2015 | Leave a comment

President Obama’s continues to wage war on the Constitution’s seperation of powers and the 2nd Amendment (see “The Most Important Amendment,” SLL, 12/12/14). From Michael Snyder at theeconomiccollapseblog.com:

Because he can’t get Congress to approve the things that he wants to do, Barack Obama has apparently decided to rule by decree for the rest of his time in the White House. One of Obama’s latest moves is to try to ban some of the most popular ammunition for the most popular rifle in America. Previously, the Obama administration attempted unsuccessfully to ban the AR-15. That didn’t work, so now Obama is going after the ammunition. This is yet another example of the war on preppers that is going on all over the nation. Whether you are a gun owner or not, this assault on our constitutional rights should disturb you greatly. Barack Obama has promised to try to squeeze as much “change” as possible out of his last two years, and in the process he is “fundamentally transforming” America. But what will our country look like when he is done?

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/war-preppers-obama-bans-ammo-popular-rifle-america

To continue reading: Obama Bans Ammo

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Mission Unaccomplished

Posted on February 14, 2015 | Leave a comment

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Just Say ‘No’ to the AUMF! by Justin Raimondo

Posted on February 13, 2015 | Leave a comment

From Justin Raimondo, at antiwar.com:

Like everything this administration does, President Obama’s proposed draft for the authorization of military force (AUMF) is a purely political document, starting with its conception. After all, US forces are already in Iraq – 3,000 of them – “advising” Iraqi and Kurdish troops. Now, suddenly, the White House sends this latest AUMF to Congress, which raises an issue: if the AUMF fails to pass, will US forces pick up and leave? To ask the question is to answer it: of course not.

The President made this clear enough in his message accompanying the draft AUMF text, which notes “US military forces are conducting a systematic campaign of airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria,” and goes on to aver that “existing statutes provide me with the authority I need to take these actions.”

Shorter Obama: I don’t need you guys, but I’m asking anyway.

But why bother? It’s all about politics. Yes, I know – shocking, isn’t it? I mean, there’s gambling going on in this casino!

The President is paving the way for his successor, who he hopes will be one Hillary Rodham Clinton, and whose foreign policy principles are a bit more openly hawkish than his own. Before she assumes office, he wants Congress’s signature on a blank check for whatever price she is willing to pay for continued US hegemony in the Middle East – while still paying lip service to the idea of a “limited” war.

This is something the smarter breed of criminals do all the time: prepare an alibi in advance and spread the responsibility far and wide. It is also in line with the first principle of a libertarian theory of foreign affairs, what I call “libertarian realism”: the idea that foreign policy is merely domestic politics extended beyond our borders. Whatever overseas policies our fearless leaders in Washington choose to pursue are concerned exclusively with the task of perpetuating and expanding their own power and prestige on the home front. Obama’s AUMF is a classic example of this principle in action.

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/02/12/just-say-no-to-the-aumf/

To continue reading: Just Say ‘No” to the AUMF!

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He Said That? 12/17/14

Posted on December 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

President Obama finally gets one right. From a New York Times article:

The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Cuba and open an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half-century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, President Obama announced on Wednesday.

In a deal negotiated during 18 months of secret talks hosted largely by Canada and encouraged by Pope Francis, who hosted a final meeting at the Vatican, Mr. Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba agreed in a telephone call to put aside decades of hostility to find a new relationship between the United States and the island nation just 90 miles off the American coast.

“We will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries,” Mr. Obama said in a nationally televised statement from the White House. The deal will “begin a new chapter among the nations of the Americas” and move beyond a “rigid policy that is rooted in events that took place before most of us were born.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html?_r=0

Senators Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio voiced their displeasure, but after 60 years and with a Castro still in power, maybe it’s time to try a different approach. Perhaps if Cuba and the US interact socially, politically, and economically, some good will come of it. Embargo proponents certainly cannot point to many successes during the last six decades. Sometimes you try something new not because you’re sure it will lead to a change for the better, but because it might and you know that what you’ve been doing hasn’t worked. What are the downside risks? Is the Cuban brand of communism any worse than of China, with whom we interact all the time?

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They Said That? 11/15/14

Posted on November 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

Vice-President Joe Biden has had some memorable gaffes, most of which are underreported by a supine American press that regards protecting Democrat politicians from embarrassment and scandal as one of its sacred duties. The British press is less dainty.  From the Daily Mail online, here’s some Joe Biden whoppers:

In a speech this year, this vice president told a gathering of African leaders that Africa was a country, not a continent.

It brought back memories of a 2008 photo-op outside Biden’s home where he told journalists that he had just returned from ‘a successful dump,’ which turned out to be a trip to a nearby landfill.

In 2010 he had a diplomatic face-palm moment by consoling Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen on the loss of his mother – who was very much alive.

In 2012 he made the sign of the cross while on stage to address a group of more than 1,600 Jewish rabbis.

Reporters guffawed later that year when he tried to capture the spirit of President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous ‘Speak softly’ philosophy, by noting that ‘the president has a big stick. I promise you.’

During a campaign speech during his first vice presidential run, he criticized then-GOP candidate Sen. John McCain for what he called a ‘last-minute economic plan’ that did ‘nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class.’
‘It happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.’

In the US, Republican Representative Trey Gowdy demonstrated why he’s completely unfit to hold office by telling the truth about Biden. In a Fox News interview, he was asked about the possibility of impeaching President Obama. His response:

‘Have you met Joe Biden? I’m not going to take it [the bait of discussing impeachment] because I’ve met Joe Biden,’ he explained. ‘That’s not the answer. … He could be the new president!’

A senior aide to a House Republican, more in line with usual Washington practice, was quoted by the Daily Mail, but not for attribution:

‘Avoiding the “I” word’ [impeachment] is a case of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
Only in this case, we’re pretty sure we know both devils. And Biden – he’s two floppy shoes short of a complete clown outfit. Let’s be honest: He’s Obama’s insurance policy.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2835048/He-s-two-floppy-shoes-short-complete-clown-outfit-Republican-congressman-says-GOP-shouldn-t-impeach-Barack-Obama-met-Joe-Biden.html

There you have it. President Obama can commit Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors with impunity, because he wisely chose a buffoon as his running mate.

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