Obama: U.S. underestimated rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria
By Steve Kroft | CBS 60 Minutes | Sept. 28, 2014 |President Obama acknowledged that the U.S. underestimated the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also called ISIL) and overestimated the ability of the Iraqi military to fend off the militant group in an interview that [aired] Sunday on 60 Minutes.
The president was asked about comments from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper [caught lying to Congress], who has said the U.S. not only underestimated ISIS, it also overestimated the ability and will of the Iraqi military to fight the extremist group.
“That’s true,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s absolutely true.”
“Jim Clappper has acknowledged that I think they [CIA or White House and NSC? – Oui] underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” he said, blaming the instability of the Syrian civil war for giving extremists space to thrive.
The comments were among the president’s most candid to date about the rapid rise of the terrorist group that has ransacked much of Syria and Iraq in recent months.
“Essentially what happened with ISIL was that you had al Qaeda in Iraq, which was a vicious group, but our Marines were able to quash with the help of Sunni tribes (1),” he explained. “They went back underground, but over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war (2), where essentially you had huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos.”
The group was able to “attract foreign fighters who believed in their jihadist nonsense and traveled everywhere from Europe to the United States to Australia to other parts of the Muslim world, converging on Syria,” the president said. “And so this became ground zero for jihadists around the world.”
He said their recruitment has been aided by a “very savvy” social media campaign (3). He also blamed remnants of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s military, which were expunged from the Iraqi military after Hussein’s fall, for lending some “traditional military capacity” to the terrorist group.
Footage courtesy of 60 Minutes
(1) Awakening Councils – see my recent diary Iraqi Tribal Leaders Pledge March to Baghdad or Not?
(2) During the chaos of the Syrian War … meaning the White House underestimated the strength of the Bashar al-Assad regime and the bad actors that would join the sectarian war. Of course we allowed Libyan jihadists to travel to Syria via Turkey and we even supported the shipment of tons of weapons to Northern Syria with funding ny the Gulf States. Assad was supposed to fall within weeks as this had been U.S. policy under Clinton and Bush. By removing Assad, the US would be helpful to our allies Israel and Saudi Arabia. Regime change is in the air, so why not a little push over the brink, we can always blame the Russians and Iranians for our failure.
(3) “very savvy” social media campaign … Yes, I [Obama] was advised that by eliminating some US citizens in Yemen, the bad actor who enticed Muslims around the world to join the jihad against the West, the propaganda would end. See also Nidal Hassan and the monthly Inspire Magazine published ny AQIP.
NYT Interview On Foreign Policy: Hogwash Mr. President! by Oui on August 9, 2014
President Obama Talks to Thomas L. Friedman About Iraq, Putin and Israel …
“The reason,” the president added, “that we did not just start taking a bunch of airstrikes all across Iraq as soon as ISIL came in was because that would have taken the pressure off of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.” That only would have encouraged, he said, Maliki and other Shiites to think: “‘We don’t actually have to make compromises. We don’t have to make any decisions. We don’t have to go through the difficult process of figuring out what we’ve done wrong in the past. All we have to do is let the Americans bail us out again. And we can go about business as usual.'”
U.S. Intelligemce failure on strength ISIL and the weakness Iraq Army
I have disagreed with Juan Cole on numerous occasions and have stated as such. Other blogs (MoA) are more harsh in their judgement of his writings. If one can say the US propelled regime change in Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, the same can be said of Syria. It was in the neocon playbook and President Bush ordered US policy to force Bashar al-Assad out. The axis Saudi Arabia – Israel – USA wanted to break the alliance Iran with Hezbollah in Lebanon and arms transport through Syria.
Both Juan Cole and an unwitting Obama refer to circumstances and fail to mention root causes: the Saudi mission of teaching Wahhabism in schools across the globe. Saudi Arabia preaches and practises the medieval and extreme form of Islam. The overthrow of Morsi in Egypt was a timely event and clarified much of the underlying politics of the Muslim Brotherhood and the alliance Morsi – Hamas – Turkey – Qatar. UAE, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia feared the MB more than their own jihadists fighting across the globe. The Jabhat al-Nusra has been designated a terror group by the US, many Arab states think differently, as do many neocon think tanks (plus politicians like McCain) who sees these forces as indispensable to overthrow Assad.
Obama sees these Arab young men as merely acting irrationally, and that he doesn’t seem to understand the profound crisis of joblessness behind the turmoil, helps explain why ISIL surprised him and his intelligence officials.
The fact is that in Syria, the 2011 revolution was initially precisely about “jobs.” Syrian young men were forced off their farms in droves in the zeroes because of a long-term drought that was likely caused by global warming, i.e. by people burning gas and oil for decades before, throughout the world. The now unemployed young farmers went to cities like Homs, Hama and Deraa, where they settled in slums circling the city. They hoped to get construction work and day labor, but the 2008 global financial crash hurt that prospect. The first demonstrations against the regime were by day laborers in the slums around these cities.
Many of the youth making a decision to join the jihad come from well educated families and even have a spouse and young children of their own. See the London Tube bombings and the underwear bomber of Christmas 2010. The thousands of youth traveling from Europe to join the jihad in Syria and al-Nusra or ISIL are neither deprivated nor mariginalized. The effect of the Israel funded Islamophobes across the western world is the best tool to recruit Muslim youth for jihad. Creating chaos and making sure the enemies of Israel (Palestinians) are conflated with the worst of terror groups from the Far East, Philippines, Malaysia, Aceh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria (Boko Haram) and the AQIM. All for the benefit of the Zionist dream to push Jewish settlements to the Jordan river.
Neither the illegal occupation by Israel of Palestinian land and the Wahhabist teachings of Saudi Arabia are mentioned by Juan Cole and President Obama. These are root causes, as is the Iraq War of March 2003, the origin of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), an insurgency funded by Saudi Arabia which developed into ISIL – ISIS – IS.
○ Terror Group Al-Qaeda Is Spelled K-h-o-r-a-s-a-n In Syria
○ NYT Interview On Foreign Policy: Hogwash Mr. President!
○ Press Briefing in Jordan – Obama Incoherent on Syrian Issue (March 2013)
○ Empire Wash-out: Iraq War a Catastrophe in the Making
○ US foreign policy dlueless: Kerry distances himself from Clinton on arming rebels in Syria
To me Saudi pushing of Wahhabism is dangerous and irreponsible but not a root cause. As you yourself point out, it is effective only because of the economic situation of educated young men in the Arab world–plus of course the grief and rage caused by military occupation of Sunnis not just by US and Israel but also Russia and China. To complain about Cole in this context is simply weird–he’s a very valuable source for understanding it (though he doesn’t mention Israel in this particular post he discusses it frequently). As I said I wish Obama would read Informed Comment.
Also, KSA’s actions are not simply religious but aimed (unwisely) at defending the economic interests of its ruling class. But Obama is wrong in regarding sectarian views as of primary importance, economics, as Cole says, is fundamental.
U.S.-led air strikes targeted a base of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, in Reef al-Mohandeseen al-Thani in Aleppo. A Kuwait television crew looked at the remnants and published their findings: Al Aan TV [Arabic].
A related article in New York Magazine:
○ Is the Khorasan Group Really Known As Al-Nusra’s ‘Wolf Unit’?
According to the document, thirteen of the fourteen men on the list are members of the “Wolf Unit, Jabhat al Nusra.” The Wolf Unit was lead by Abu Yusuf al Turki, the famous Jabhat al Nusra sniper who is an Afghan veteran. See my earlier post which already linked al Turki to the Afghan War [source].
What Obama doesn’t want to reveal, this group is a hardened Al Qaeda group who traveled from the Afgan-Pakistan war theater to establish a terror cell inside Syria for outward attacks. Judging by the names on the list, four of the fourteen are Turks, two Egyptians, two Yemeni, two Tunisians, one Palestinian, one Serbian, one from the Caucasus.
Cross-posted from my diary – Terror Group Al-Qaeda Is Spelled K-h-o-r-a-s-a-n In Syria.
Be A Big Boy Bob!
What is this bs about Saudi guilt?
Saudi Arabia for decades have set up madrasses (religious schools) in Lebanon and Syria to undermine the unity and stability of both governments/states. Israel like the US makes use of division and makes deals with any and all sides: dictators, rogue elements, terror groups and legitimate governments. A false flag attack is part of the war for survival.
○ Israeli TV News Claims Dearborn Hotbed of Islamist Terrorism
I won’t cry for you Bob Graham.
The US played a controlling and active role in the Homs protests. Ambassador Ford continued where the Bush administration initiated a process of regime change. See the front page story of susanhu in the year 2005.
○ NSC Chief Hadley asked Italy for a Bashar Replacement – October 2005
If Obama wanted the Turkey border closed for traveling jihadists to Syria, our NATO partner would have been compliant. Instead many NATO partners joined in intelligence gathering and stationed a number of Patriot anti-aircrfat batteries along the border. Not one missile has been fired.
US officials have asked the Islamic Front to return US equipment and vehicles taken from the warehouses. In the meantime, Ambassador Ford has met with Alloush to discuss the possibility of his going to Geneva.
Zahran Alloush is the military chief of the Islamic Front (الجبهة الإسلامية, al-Jabhat al-Islāmiyyah), the newly founded super militia that reportedly represents 45,000 fighters. As such, he could turn out to be the most powerful man in rebel held Syria.
* Alloush with Islamic Front terror groups just gained control of Quinetra, the border post on the Golan Heights. Where is Ambassador Ford?
○ The Syria “Gun-Running Program” coordinated by CIA and MI6
○ German Espionage Ship Off the Syrian Coast Is a War Act
Poor Joe, or was it the other way around?