The Left can be very, very vicious

 Julie Hartman, a student at Harvard, wasn't very political, but like most college students, she was "liberal."  Never even thought there's another way.  She came across Prager U and Dennis Prager, and through his radio program had an epiphany. She's a conservative now, and in 2022 her description of a senior trip to Israel came out in which she defended America and criticized her generation, her classmates at Harvard on the trip, for their ignorance about our history. They are using their freedom to destroy freedom she said.  https://youtu.be/6iD09hBRL-Q

She was invited to appear on Prager's radio show, and when she did and her Harvard classmates found out, they were outraged and got really nasty.  But after some soul searching, she decided "coming out of the closet" was much less painful than holding back. She graduated in 2022, and now has her own podcast called Timeless. Timeless with Julie Hartman on Apple Podcasts

https://youtu.be/0xtv8XtjzdA  Her senior address at Harvard "If we lose freedom here."

Today's podcast is on Iraqi society now--on the 20th anniversary of the invasion. And on Ukraine. Timeless with Julie Hartman: The War in Iraq on Apple Podcasts

20 years after the fact, Julie dissects the events that lead to the US invasion of Iraq. Topics include: Defiant Putin visits Mariupol in first trip to occupied eastern Ukraine, the facts on ‘De-Nazifying’ Ukraine, and the long battle over Crimea; HHS Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine says gender affirming care will be normalized …when did tolerance become unabashed support?

  

Beau Biden didn't die in or because of Iraq

One of Joe Biden's favorite lies is that his son died in Iraq, and if he's having a good day and remembers that his handlers told him not to say that, he corrects it to "because" he served in Iraq. And sometimes he gets it mixed up with Ukraine but says Beau was on his mind. Beau Biden died of glioblastoma, not from anything that happened to him in Iraq. (He was a military lawyer.) He can be commended for serving--a lot of sons of the privileged don't do that. He was certainly a greater man than Hunter Biden, who then consoled Beau's widow by going to bed with her. Glioblastoma also killed Ted Kennedy and John McCain, but that horrible, deadly cancer did not kill Beau.

Since our son died of glioblastoma in 2020 and I was his caregiver,  I try to read as little as possible about it. Here's a study of the last 10 days: "The most frequent signs and symptoms in the last 10 days before death were decrease in level of consciousness (95%), fever (88%), dysphagia (65%), seizures (65%), and headache (33%). Concerning medication, 95% received opioids. There was a high need for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (77%) and anticonvulsants (75%). Steroids were given to 56%." There really has been little new in that field, although other cancers have shown great advancements in treatment. It's slash and burn for glioblastoma. Cut the tumor out which lets it spread; then burn the brain with toxic chemo and/or radiation.

 
As awful as Iraq was for thousands of our military, it didn't kill Beau Biden.

The death of Soleimani

According to the Wall Street Journal:

"After an Iranian-backed militia staged a violent protest and attempted to overrun the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Iraq this week, President Donald Trump described the event as the “anti-Benghazi.” He wasn’t kidding

Last night the Pentagon announced:

At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.

This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world."

Not to worry those of you Democrats accusing Trump of being Hitler, etc., and especially that crazy movie star who apologized on behalf of 52% of Americans (Hillary's supporters?) Jake Tapper in Sept. 2011 proudly proclaimed Obama the killer of 10 terrorists, including Osama bin Ladin.

The Gotcha question

The Iraq question isn’t the only gotcha question Jeb Bush will be getting about his brother. Just as Hillary will be carrying Bill, so Jeb and Dubya.  I believe he handled it poorly—and Marco Rubio did an excellent job and said the closest to what I would say.

• Who in the world “would have gone into Iraq knowing what we know today (in May 2015).
• Who could have known the next president (Obama) would take a war won in Afghanistan, and essentially won in Iraq (after the surge) and throw it all away because he made promises to the far left to get elected and then play footsy with Iraq and draw meaningless lines in the sand?
• Knowing now what Obama would do, of course, Saddam would have been the choice to hold Iraq in check. He was a really bad dude, and the Iraqis and Iranians are different ethnic groups.
• Now we know what Obama intends, and Saddam could be useful if not dead.
• Osama bin Laden’s death has probably led to the growth of ISIS, so that’s on Obama’s record. A year ago, none of us had ever heard of ISIS.
• Bush acted on intelligence from the Clinton era and the Democrat candidates in 2000 were really beating the war drums about WMD.
• Obama acted on intelligence from the Bush era.

How far back should we go? What if Truman had decided to undo the tentative allied victory in Europe and not use the bomb on Japan? What if there had been no Communists in FDRs cabinet and administration to push for giving Eastern Europe to the Russians laying the ground work for almost half a century of domination by the powerhouse USSR that we helped create?

I’d like to hear a candidate play the history “what if” game and out smart the reporters reading a script. The Republican candidates will all run from the Iraq-Afghanistan wars, and no one will turn the table to speak on Obama’s complete failure in the middle east. But if such a candidate emerges from the large, talented field of Republicans, I’ll vote for him/her.

Afghan civilian casualties

“The U.N. now reports that more than 17,700 innocent Afghans have died in the past five years of fighting, the majority of them killed by the Taliban or other groups fighting the Afghan government and coalition forces.”

Condolence payments from the military

“According to the data we received, in fiscal years 2011 through 2013, the military made 953 condolence payments totaling $2.7 million. $1.8 million of those were for deaths, and the average payment for a death was $3,426. Payments for injuries averaged $1,557.”

“The total for Iraq that year [2009] was over $18 million; overall, Afghanistan saw fewer and smaller claims than Iraq, because of remote geography and fewer U.S. troops deployed. Prices for replacement goods or lost wages were generally lower, Dribben said.”

Read between the lines—Obama is no military leader

“Washington spent $25 billion to re-create and arm Iraq’s security forces after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion [under Bush and a large coalition], only to see the Iraqi army easily defeated last year by a ragtag collection of Islamic State fighters who took control of large parts of the country [after Obama pulled out the troops and left them defenseless]. Just last year, President Obama touted Yemen as a successful example of his approach to combating terrorism.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-loses-sight-of-500-million-in-counterterrorism-aid-given-to-yemen/2015/03/17/

WaPo is an Obama apologist—so you won’t find outright condemnation. Obama pulled out and left Iraqis defenseless.  Our losses in Afghanistan are triple what they were under Bush, and that war—the one Obama said was “good,”--was virtually won before he took office. Gave armaments to a country not strong enough to handle them.

Even with the Benghazi scandal, there were rumors of American arms being part of the story and then it appeared in a report not released to the public at the time. ‘The consulate’s only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms,’ the former intelligence official, who has read the annex, said. ‘It had no real political role.’ Many of those arms probably ended up in the hands of ISIS who are now killing our allies and Christians. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/real-benghazi-story.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/covert-cia-mission-to-arm-syrian-rebels-goes-awry-1422329582

An Iraqi-Assyrian speaks out after the burning of the Mosul public library

“When ISIS first attacked Mosul, we Assyrians living in America protested and begged for help. We have lived as a minority in Iraq for hundreds of years, we have faced oppression, but when ISIS came we knew this was unlike anything we have ever faced before. Far worse than anything Saddam himself could have imagined. People counter protested us said it was not America's problem, citing the Iraq war. This is nothing like the Iraq war and I think now people are starting to understand why it is our problem. This isn't some backwards, stupid terrorist group. The leader of ISIS is CIA trained; he is smart unlike anything I've ever seen in the middle east before, and he wants to establish a caliphate. He won't stop until he wipes out the US and other westerners off the map. Now, he may very well be in absolutely no position to do that ever, but at the rate he is going he will be strong enough to cause us a lot of problems very soon.” Commenter at the article on burning the library, a Christian church and a theater.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/isis-burns-8000-rare-books-030900856.html

“The library was looted in 2003 and the citizens of Mosul restored it. During the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the library was looted and destroyed by mobs. However, the people living nearby managed to save most of its collections and rich families bought back the stolen books and they were returned to the library, All Faraj added.”

I lay the ISIS problems—the killing, torture and building of the caliphate--at the feet of President Obama, who could have prevented all this loss by leaving minimal armed U.S. military in the country.  ISIS flooded in even before our pull out which had conveniently been announced with a time table. And if he were a secret Muslim, what would be different? As it is, he is just another just-us social justice Christian.

It’s expensive to fund terrorism

Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations asked the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to look at allegations that the Islamic State group is using organ harvesting as a way to finance its operations.

Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim told reporters that in the past few weeks, bodies with surgical incisions and missing kidneys or other body parts have been found in shallow mass graves.

"We have bodies. Come and examine them," he said. "It is clear they are missing certain parts."

He also said a dozen doctors have been "executed" in Mosul for refusing to participate in organ harvesting.

 http://www.Newsmax.com/Headline/iraq-harvesting-organs-isis/2015/02/18/id/625371/

Female lawyer in Mosul tortured and executed by ISIS

“Militants with the Islamic State group tortured and then publicly killed a human rights lawyer in the Iraqi city of Mosul after their self-proclaimed religious court ruled that she had abandoned Islam, the U.N. mission in Iraq said Thursday.

Gunmen with the group's newly declared police force seized Samira Salih al-Nuaimi last week in a northeastern district of the Mosul while she was home with her husband and three children, two people with direct knowledge of the incident told The Associated Press on Thursday. Al-Nuaimi was taken to a secret location. After about five days, the family was called by the morgue to retrieve her corpse, which bore signs of torture, the two people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, her arrest was allegedly connected to Facebook messages she posted that were critical of the militants' destruction of religious sites in Mosul. A statement by the U.N. on Thursday added that al-Nuaimi was tried in a so-called "Sharia court" for apostasy, after which she was tortured for five days before the militants sentenced her to "public execution." Her Facebook page appears to have been removed since her death.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/25/samira-nuaimi-killed_n_5880900.html

ISIS destroying churches and mosques

“ISIS has destroyed churches, religious shrines and mosques in the provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh, including the tombs of the prophets Jonah, George, Daniel as well as a number of ancient churches in the provinces of Salahuddin and Nineveh. In Mosul ISIS has destroyed or occupied all 45 Christian religious institutions (AINA 2014-07-29).

The Green Church was considered the most famous church of Tikrit and the most beautiful. It was built by the Metropolitan of Tikrit, His Holinesss Dinkha II, and was called the church of Saint Ahoadamah in remembrance of the Patriarch who was killed by the Persian King Khosrow I.

Buried in the Church were the founder Mar Dinkha II, and his successors Daniel, Thomas, Basilious III, and John II.

In 1089 the church was ordered destroyed by the Muslim governor and it was looted and damaged, but was later restored and returned to Assyrians.”

http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2014/09/extremist-destroy-7th-century-church-mosque-in-tikrit-iraq/

http://www.aina.org/news/20140925012701.htm

Crickets and crow

Bush/Cheney haters should be eating some crow right now. Bush took a few moments to gather his thoughts during a visit to a school classroom after the 9/11 disaster and they ridiculed him.  Obama dawdled and hesitated for months not only in Iraq in 2009, but more recently for 9 months about ISIS, and it's crickets from the Bush haters. Kerry calls bombing ISIS counter terrorism and WH Chief of Staff calls it war, and Obama calls it time out and goes to the golf course.

Bush went to Congress to get support and enlisted many international allies; Obama will apparently move forward on the force of his charisma and personality. In the late 1990s most Democrats in Congress including Kerry, Edwards, Kennedy, Lieberman,  Feinstein, Milulski, and Daschle all warned the country and President Clinton about WMD citing good sources of intelligence. But it was Bush's fault when they weren't found.  Yet Obama was using the excuse of chemical weapons (aka WMD) by Assad for supporting Syrian rebels and drawing lines and tough talk, even though it hasn't been proven and we've been fooled before.

http://www.cfr.org/iraq/iraq-justifying-war/p7689

http://www.rightwingnews.com/quotes/if-the-bush-administration-lied-about-wmd-so-did-these-people-version-3-0/

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/343870/why-did-we-invade-iraq-victor-davis-hanson/page/0/1?splash=

Prophetic words from President Bush

"I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region, and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we'd be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we'd allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous." G.W. Bush, July 12, 2007

It looks like Bush understood the danger much more than Obama.

The Friday Foreign Affairs Forum at Lakeside

At yesterday's Foreign Affairs Forum one woman said, "I still support President Obama. . . yada, yada" and that in itself didn't surprise me--Lakeside is a highly educated community with progressives retired from university faculties as common as summer flowers and perch sandwiches. But I was tempted to say, "Why? Can you name anything, particularly in foreign affairs, that he has touched that has gone well?" What country where we have national interests is better off than in 2008? We were discussing Gaza, Ukraine, and ISIS. Has he shown leadership there or in Libya, Pakistan, Nigeria, or Somalia? American women get free birth control with bragging rights for the president, and middle eastern women and girls get rape, slavery and beheading. Then he wines and dines African potentates at the White House who suck up American aid for lavish life styles. But I kept quiet. I'm just telling you.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/us-africa-leaders-summit

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/05/photos-obama-toasts-african-leaders-at-white-house-dinner/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2014/08/05/live-watch-as-african-leaders-and-vips-arrive-at-the-white-house/

It’s not true that Obama didn’t know what was coming with ISIS

It may look like Obama was just dumb and caught flat footed when ISIS (aka ISIL or IS) overran Iraq and began killing Muslims and Christians, beheading and crucifying and raping.  But he was warned.  Many times.

“It’s simply not true that nobody saw a disaster like the fall of Mosul coming,” Ali Khedery, who served as a senior adviser at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, told The Daily Beast. “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I literally predicted this in verbal warnings and in writing in 2010 that Iraq would fall apart.”

“I and a zillion other people said in 2014 that we needed to do more than the very slow and inadequate reaction,” added James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq. “If [ISIS] could move in and seize Fallujah and they were on the offensive, and they were active in Mosul and Nineweh [province] too, the army was lethargic and not doing very well, at that point there was a possibility for us to provide air strikes and advisers.”

Instead, the Obama policy meandered through a series of half-measures. . .

While the policy process in Washington was frozen, U.S. intelligence analysts still filed their warnings about major weaknesses in Iraq’s military. Both the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have issued reported analysis for nearly a year warning that Iraq’s military would not be able to stand up against a sustained campaign from ISIS.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/06/why-the-white-house-ignored-all-those-warnings-about-isis.html

Just bombs—no boots on the ground

When the media report on Obama authorizing bombing of Islamists in Iraq yesterday before leaving for a 2 week vacation, they note that he campaigned on ending the war, without reminding us that Bush ended it.

"17 November 2008 – The US and the Iraqi Government sign the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement providing for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities by 30 June 2009 and a complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011."

By the time Obama was elected, the heavy lifting was over, yet the media credit him for ending it. Even at the end of the 2008 campaign, it became a non-issue.  But it wasn't over was it? ISIS aka IS, a Sunni offshoot of al-Qaeda, was growing and although Obama was warned many months before we knew, nothing was done. The leader of ISIS is far more brutal than Osama could have dreamed of. Beheadings and crucifixions are far more common than with Osama.  Although we left troops in Korea in the 1950s and Germany and Japan for decades after WWII to help with stabilization, never mind Iraq--it could wing it. Perhaps if a better solution to helping Iraq get back on its feet had been worked out, there would be thousands of Iraqi minorities and Christians and Shiia still alive.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-kerry-warned-isis-paid-attention/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/world/middleeast/obama-weighs-military-strikes-to-aid-trapped-iraqis-officials-say.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-iraq-isis-conflict-in-maps-photos-and-video.html

Pray for the minorities in Iraq

“Please continue to pray for the Iraqi people who have fled their homes because of religious persecution. Their situation is dire--with some reports saying thousands of people hiding in the mountains are being left with two choices 1) die at the hands of the IS militants 2) die of thirst in the mountains. Please pray!

"Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, who heads Iraq's largest Christian denomination, said the overnight offensive had displaced 100,000 Christians.

"This is a humanitarian disaster. The churches are occupied, their crosses were taken down," he told AFP, adding that 1,500 manuscripts had been burnt."”

http://news.yahoo.com/jihadist-offensive-sparks-mass-iraq-exodus-084039459.html

Jihadist fighters moved into Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian town, and surrounding areas on Wednesday night after the withdrawal of Kurdish peshmerga troops, who are stretched thin across several fronts.

"Qaraqosh, Tal Kayf, Bartella and Karamlesh have been emptied of their original population and are now under the control of the militants," Joseph Thomas, a Chaldean Catholic archbishop in northern Iraq, told AFP.

Christians flee ISIS

“UN officials said an estimated 200,000 new refugees were seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north from Islamic extremists who had pursued them since the weekend. The city of Qaraqosh, south-east of Mosul, home to around 50,000 Christians was the latest to fall, with most residents fleeing before dawn as convoys of extremists drew near.

Other Christian towns near Mosul, including Tel Askof, Tel Keif and Qaramless have also largely been emptied. Those who remained behind have reportedly been given the same stark choice given to other minorities, including Yazidis: flee, convert to Islam, or be killed.

Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen have been at the frontlines of Iraq's war with the Islamic State (Isis) ever since the jihadist group stormed into Mosul and Tikrit and mid-June. The Iraqi army capitulated within hours, with at least 60,000 officers and soldiers fleeing on the first day of the assault alone.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/isis-offensive-iraq-christian-exodus

Quoting a UNICEF spokesperson, the Washington Post reports today: “There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads. There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It’s a disaster, a total disaster.”  Not to worry.  The Obama administration made a statement. “The United States is committed to helping the people of Iraq as they confront. . . and so forth.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/384773/1500-iraqi-civilians-were-slaughtered-yesterday-isis-and-obama-administration-issued

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28686998

After 2000 years, there are no more Christians in Mosul

“In making his own nation and setting up his Islamic Caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was able to take advantage of the lack of a centralized authority in Iraq and Syria. Since the last of the Christians have departed the city, Christian churches have had the insides gutted, crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary destroyed, and many have been converted to Mosques. Survivors who fled the city tell gruesome stories of beheadings, crucifixions and worse being perpetrated by ISIS rebels.”

http://myocn.net/mosuls-christians-ask-conscience-world/

Mission Accomplished. . . oops

“As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had his own “Mission Accomplished” moment when declaring the country “stable,” “self-reliant,” and an “extraordinary achievement.” “ VDH

But Obama showed himself to be a weak and confused leader after the war was essentially over and won by the time he took office in January 2009 with nothing left to do but stabilize the victories.  His supporters didn’t seem to notice, but the terrorists certainly took note.  Now that ISIS has overrun the region, he is looking around for someone to blame.  Bush and the Republicans, of course.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/381831/how-obama-lost-middle-east-victor-davis-hanson

Sunnis and Shi’ites can’t get along with each other; why should they get along with us?

"The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has just seized the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit, and is close to taking control of the nation’s largest oil refinery — indicating that the jihad between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims is raging hotter now than it has in centuries, and isn’t going to die down anytime soon. . .the idea that the Sunni-Shi’ite divide, which is 1,400 years old and goes all the way back to the murky origins of Islam, is something that can without undue difficulty be “overcome” is a sterling manifestation of the general superficiality of Washington’s analysis of the Middle East, during both the Bush and the Obama administrations. - http://pamelageller.com/2014/06/sunni-vs-shia-explained.html/

Bush thought he could bring democracy to these warring groups and stop the killing; Obama thought he could pull out and the killing and chaos would not return. But looking at that big black blob (Shia) that is Iran, I suspect that’s where the problem is.