*The World Will Blame President Obama if Iraq Falls---just the religious
warmongers.*
On Friday, August 8, 2014 11:34:58 AM UTC-5, Travis wrote:
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> http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/the-world-will-blame-president-obama-if-iraq-falls-20140807
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> *The World Will Blame President Obama if Iraq Falls*
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> *The White House is under intense pressure to use American force to save
> the people trapped by terrorists on the mountaintop. And it understands
> why.*
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> By George E. Condon Jr. <http://www.nationaljournal.com/reporters/bio/73>
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> - Follow on Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/georgecondon>
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> [image: http://www.nationaljournal.com/img/1x1.gif]
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> An Iraqi Yazidi family that fled the violence in the northern Iraqi town
> of Sinjar sits at at a school where they are taking shelter in the Kurdish
> city of Dohuk.(SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images)
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> The world will not blame the Iraqi government if the children and women
> huddled atop Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq die of hunger and exposure. Nor
> will Pope Francis blame Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki if the Islamic
> extremists attacking the country slaughter the 40,000 Christians and other
> minorities who have fled to the mountaintop. The fact is that the world,
> from the pontiff in the Vatican to the coal miner in West Virginia, will
> blame President Obama.
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> That is why the president found himself under such intense pressure to act
> on Thursday, facing calls from around the world to marshal American might
> in a way to both rush humanitarian aid to the refugees in Iraq and punish
> the forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who are trying to
> kill them.
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> It was notable that the pope's plea for help was not directed at Iraq's
> putative government. "His Holiness addresses an urgent appeal to the
> international community to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now
> underway, to act to protect those affected or threatened by violence and to
> provide aid, especially for the most urgent needs of the many who have been
> forced to flee and who depend on the solidarity of others," said the
> statement issued by the Vatican on Thursday.
>
> While the president was huddled with his military advisers in Washington
> assessing his options before making his decision, he could not help but
> feel the pressure. And perhaps no one could better understand that pressure
> than a man who routinely attended such meetings under three presidents and
> famously codified the "Pottery Barn Rule" prior to the launch of the Iraq
> War in 2003. According to author Bob Woodward, Colin Powell told President
> George W. Bush: "You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people.
> You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You'll own it
> all." He distilled the rule as "You break it, you own it."
>
> A decade later and after millions of American dollars, thousands of
> casualties, and seemingly hundreds of different policies, Iraq is very much
> broken. Even though he has boasted of "ending" the U.S. role in the war and
> even though he didn't create the situation, Obama very much owns the mess.
> And he finds himself on a timetable not of his choosing and very much at
> odds with his policy.
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> That policy has been clear ever since ISIS started gobbling up Iraqi
> territory and terrorizing the Iraqi people, meeting only ineffective
> response from the Iraqi military supposedly trained by the United States:
> First, force Maliki to reform his government, broaden his sectarian appeal,
> and send a signal to all of Iraq that Baghdad could represent and protect
> them all. Only then could military help come from the United States.
>
> But this situation, which the White House concedes is an immediate
> humanitarian catastrophe with lives hanging in the balance, cannot wait for
> Maliki to get his politics together. As reporters repeatedly reminded press
> secretary Josh Earnest on Thursday, these people are already dying.
>
> That forced Obama to square his aversion to using military force abroad
> with his humanitarian urges. After the United States stood idly by in 1994
> during the Rwandan genocide, President Clinton promised the world that
> "never again" would the United States be blind to genocide. Obama's
> instincts were to keep that promise. But those instincts seemed to be at
> war with his desire to stay out of foreign wars. That brought renewed
> attention to the conditions the president laid out in 2011 to justify
> involvement in Libya's civil war.
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> In an address to the nation from the East Room on March 18, 2011, the
> president said he was impelled to act by a situation similar in many
> respects to the current crisis in Iraq. "Here is why this matters to us,"
> he said then. Without international action, he said, there would be
> "atrocities against his people." He added, "Many thousands could die. A
> humanitarian crisis would ensue. The entire region could be destabilized,
> endangering many of our allies and partners. The calls of the Libyan people
> would go unanswered. The democratic values that we stand for would be
> overrun. Moreover, the words of the international community would be
> rendered hollow." He concluded, "And that's why the United States has
> worked with our allies and partners to shape a strong international
> response at the United Nations."
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> That speech is as close as it gets to outlining an Obama Doctrine for
> humanitarian situations. It is another reason why the pressure on the White
> House is so intense. The world knows that the United States "broke" Iraq
> and "owns" the mess, and is waiting to see if the Obama Doctrine that
> applied in 2011 still applies today.
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