Obama Blames the Victim, Looks for Excuses on Iraq

First, the president did it in an interview last week, asserting, “If the Iraqis themselves are not willing or capable to arrive at the political accommodations necessary to govern, if they are not willing to fight for the security of their country, we cannot do that for them.” The usually sober and precise Defense Secretary Ashton Carter did it on the Sunday shows, lashing out at the Iraqi troops for lacking “the will to fight.” As one might expect, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi forcefully pushed back on the accusation.

This is odd on many levels. First, the administration’s own policy is premised on the notion Iraq, with some help, can defend itself. Second, if Ramadi was a  mild “setback” as the administration insisted, why all the alarmist language? Third, it’s not even true as Max Boot explained:

Plenty of Iraqis have shown themselves more than willing to fight for their country—just recall how the Iraqi armed forces and the Sons of Iraq, in cooperation with US forces, routed Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2007 and then later took on the Mahdist Army. The reason that today we consistently see small ISIS formations scattering much larger Iraqi units is that the Iraqi units have been undermined from within by corruption and sectarianism. Iraqi soldiers today are badly trained, badly led, badly supplied, badly motivated. But that’s not the fault of rank and file troops. The blame goes to the Shite sectarians who have dominated Baghdad since the American pullout in 2011. If Iraq forces have better leadership and training and supplies, as they did in 2007-2008, they will fight far more effectively.

So what does the president propose? Certainly degrading and defeating the Islamic State is in our interest, not just Iraq’s, as the president told the country when he announced the operation (such as it is) last September. Perhaps the administration is concocting a rationale for acquiescence — to Iran.

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“With Iraq’s forces out of the game and with no chance of American forces intervening, the only chance there is to repel IS is Iranian militias,” Jonathan Schanzer observes, “Indeed, Iran is gaining territory in the Middle East because of our president’s fear of new conflict and Iraq’s inability to hold territory.” 

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Read the full article here.