| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Home Front: WoT | |
| US and Islamic State: 'We did see this coming' | |
| 2014-07-25 | |
| WASHINGTON — Like the rest of the world, the U.S. government appeared to have been taken aback last month when Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell to an offensive by jihadis of the Islamic State that triggered the collapse of five Iraqi army divisions and carried the extremists to the threshold of Baghdad. A review of the record shows, however, that the Obama administration wasn’t surprised at all. In congressional testimony as far back as November, U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials made clear that the United States had been closely tracking the al Qaida spinoff since 2012, when it enlarged its operations from Iraq to civil war-torn Syria, seized an oil-rich province there and signed up thousands of foreign fighters who’d infiltrated Syria through NATO ally Turkey. The testimony, which received little news media attention at the time, also showed that Obama administration officials were well aware of the group’s declared intention to turn its Syrian sanctuary into a springboard from which it would send men and materiel back into Iraq and unleash waves of suicide bombings there. And they knew that the Iraqi security forces couldn’t handle it. The group’s operations “are calculated, coordinated and part of a strategic campaign led by its Syria-based leader, Abu Bakr al Baghadi,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brett McGurk told a House committee on Feb. 5, four months before fighting broke out in Mosul. “The campaign has a stated objective to cause the collapse of the Iraqi state and carve out a zone of governing control in western regions of Iraq and Syria.” The testimony raises an obvious question: If the Obama administration had such early warning of the Islamic State’s ambitions, why, nearly two months after the fall of Mosul, is it still assessing what steps, if any, to take to halt the advance of Islamist extremists who threaten U.S. allies in the region and have vowed to attack Americans?
| |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 So the Bammer knew since 2012 + did nothing. Not good news for Guam-WESTPAC + US Allies in East Asia vee "Post-US", "Mahanist", future World#1 wannabe = OWG Co-Superpower Rising China. The Bammer has yet to begin wid China. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2014-07-25 21:08 |
| #7 Heh |
| Posted by: Frank G 2014-07-25 14:35 |
| #6 "Consequentialism is hard!" - Diplomat Barbie |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-07-25 14:15 |
| #5 "The testimony raises an obvious question: If the Obama administration had such early warning of the Islamic State's ambitions, why, nearly two months after the fall of Mosul, is it still assessing what steps, if any, to take to halt the advance of Islamist extremists who threaten U.S. allies in the region and have vowed to attack Americans?" My take: 1) Deer : Headlights 2) Some serious ambivalence regarding who the "good guys" are. |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2014-07-25 13:02 |
| #4 Giving IS weapons & training is doing nothing? You forgot money and political influence. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-07-25 08:02 |
| #3 Having been the dream of many fathers, the arrival of the caliphate has long been predicted. You either openly or clandestinely support it, or you do not. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-07-25 06:17 |
| #2 The O administration decided to do nothing Giving IS weapons & training is doing nothing? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-07-25 02:38 |
| #1 Everyone saw it coming. The O administration decided to do nothing, and let it fail, thus showing that they wanted it to fail. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2014-07-25 00:07 |