UPDATE 14 February 2015: With an eye still on SITREP E12-14: War on the Islamic State as the genesis of the blatant hoax brought before Congress, the American people and even our closest allies by President Obama, his administration and the U.S. State Department, the sum of this leftist political contrivance has essentially left approximately 320 US Marines trapped deep in the desert of western Iraq at Ein Al-Asad Air Base. These Marines were originally deployed to Ein Al-Asad to train troops of the Iraqi 7th Division in combat tactics. Now they are fully enveloped in yet another Obama-Caused Disaster.
It now appears that nearly simultaneous with Obama's delivery of his AUMF charade, Islamic State forces began attacking Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in the adjacent Euphrates River village of Khan-al-Baghdadi. Initial reports yesterday had the ISF repelling the IS attack, but that appears to have been pure propaganda from the Shi'a-led Iraqi government, with IS forces apparently overwhelming the ISF and allied tribal defenders and then pressing on to attack the Ein Al-Asad Air Base itself. More recent accounts report that Iraqi forces have been defeated in the battle for Khan-al-Baghdadi and that if tribal forces withdraw from further combat then the whole of Anbar Province could be lost to the Islamic State.
12 February 2015: So, hopefully by now everyone is aware that Obama's AUMF is a half-breed cross between much ado about nothing and the most contemptuous political charade of his failed presidency. It's not designed to do any significant damage and might even be seen as aide and comfort being afforded to Islamic jihadists. At this point I cannot help but think about Ecclesiastes 1:9 ...
It now appears that nearly simultaneous with Obama's delivery of his AUMF charade, Islamic State forces began attacking Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) in the adjacent Euphrates River village of Khan-al-Baghdadi. Initial reports yesterday had the ISF repelling the IS attack, but that appears to have been pure propaganda from the Shi'a-led Iraqi government, with IS forces apparently overwhelming the ISF and allied tribal defenders and then pressing on to attack the Ein Al-Asad Air Base itself. More recent accounts report that Iraqi forces have been defeated in the battle for Khan-al-Baghdadi and that if tribal forces withdraw from further combat then the whole of Anbar Province could be lost to the Islamic State.
12 February 2015: So, hopefully by now everyone is aware that Obama's AUMF is a half-breed cross between much ado about nothing and the most contemptuous political charade of his failed presidency. It's not designed to do any significant damage and might even be seen as aide and comfort being afforded to Islamic jihadists. At this point I cannot help but think about Ecclesiastes 1:9 ...
"That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun."
... and apply it to recent history. In light of President Obama's recent morally bankrupt allegory of Christians like us equating to the jihadists of the Islamic State, I have an allegory of my own for him to ponder. Immediately prior to the outbreak of World War II there was the made-in-hell non-aggression pact between Hitler's Nazi Germany and Stalin's Communist dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
Fast forward to our world in 2015 and its teetering on the brink of a similar global conflagration. Notice that we have President Barack Hussein Obama doing back-flips for the Iranian Ayatollah in hot pursuit of a meaningless nuclear accord and non-aggression pact. And what does Obama do to sweeten the pot for the Iranian Ayatollah? He abandons our ally in Yemen to Iranian jihadists with a flip of his limp wrist and turns his backside upon our greatest ally in Israel whom the Ayatollah plans to burn in nuclear fire. Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun! Might someone inform Barack Hussein Obama that Genesis 12:3 is still in effect and even appears to have his name written all over it?
10 February 2015: 6 days ago I sent out a private email "heads-up" stating "I think Obama is about to ask the new Republican-led congress to declare war on IS; failing that I think he will invoke war powers in order to deploy (many additional) US boots on the ground in Iraq or Jordan." I also think some of those first additional boots will be jumping into the war from perfectly good aircraft.
Fast forward to our world in 2015 and its teetering on the brink of a similar global conflagration. Notice that we have President Barack Hussein Obama doing back-flips for the Iranian Ayatollah in hot pursuit of a meaningless nuclear accord and non-aggression pact. And what does Obama do to sweeten the pot for the Iranian Ayatollah? He abandons our ally in Yemen to Iranian jihadists with a flip of his limp wrist and turns his backside upon our greatest ally in Israel whom the Ayatollah plans to burn in nuclear fire. Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun! Might someone inform Barack Hussein Obama that Genesis 12:3 is still in effect and even appears to have his name written all over it?
10 February 2015: 6 days ago I sent out a private email "heads-up" stating "I think Obama is about to ask the new Republican-led congress to declare war on IS; failing that I think he will invoke war powers in order to deploy (many additional) US boots on the ground in Iraq or Jordan." I also think some of those first additional boots will be jumping into the war from perfectly good aircraft.
Now, with so much of the major media spinning in advance what lame duck Obama's new AUMF will mean, I know a couple of things for certain. One, this is no bluf as Syria was a couple of years ago, and two, the Republican-led Congress will not ham-string an as yet unelected Republican President in 2016 with a minimalist "boots on the ground" authorization for the use of military force against Islamic State and its associated terrorist allies wherever they may be in the world. This AUMF might just authorize American combat forces to be deployed deeply into virtually any country at any time that Obama wants them to be there as long as said hamstringing of a subsequent POTUS does not occur.
In any case, a political fight like this one with a Republican-led Congress is shaping up to be, will be a knock-down drag-out that follows on the heels of more than a few recent Obama Administration military failures, such as occurred in Libya, particularly Benghazi, the purge of dozens of senior military officers in the wake of Benghazi, blatant Russian military adventurism, and even more recently the total loss of a major ally in Yemen to a pro-Iranian militia. These are clearly not the kind of stellar credentials Congress should grant expanded war powers to, unless they can figure out how to use this fight to their advantage by attaching a rider of unwavering U.S. military support to Israel and a robust U.S. military option against Iranian nukes should the current bad deal fall flat on its face.
It will be more important than ever for Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu to speak to our Congress in a couple weeks time.
Having heard this POTUS describe his desire for war powers be granted by Congress from him to wage to wage Operation No Enduring Freedom over the last 23 months of his term of office and ham-stringing his successor to 13 months of nonsense... Obama's request is patently ridiculous, very likely dead-on-arrival in Congress, and mostly an reflects an effort to defend his Muslim Brothers from the harm that America should be doing to them in the most decisive manner possible.
Be that as it may, there are other things going on that have an even stronger potential to flush this nonsense downstream rather quickly. Those things will be front and center on this blog very soon.
