Obama blames intelligence officials for the rise of ISIS
Obama the Blamethrower strikes again This time our president says that American intelligence is at fault for underestimating the threat of ISIS. It is never his fault-never ever.
As Ronald Reagan would say, there he goes again.
Barack Obama, in an interview aired on 60 Minutes (one of his favorite shows because it fawns on him and, in the words of Steve Kroft, one of its talking heads, won’t ask him tough questions) casts blame on intelligence officials for the rise of ISIS
President Barack Obama said that U.S. intelligence officials "underestimated what had been taking place in Syria," and that several years of political chaos in the country had created an environment for Islamic State to thrive in Syria and Iraq.
Oddly, when the intelligence officials gave George W. Bush bad information about Iraq’s WMD program there was no attempt by Bush to shift blame onto long-serving career officials. It was the same intelligence that led the majority of US Democratic Senators (including then-Senators Hillary Clinton and John Kerry) to vote to give President Bush authority to launch military operations. Of course, when things went south they tried to revise history and whitewash their own responsibility by claiming that Bush “lied” and people died.
But, as is customary for Obama, he lays off blame for his failures on others who are in no position to object since they serve at his beck and call. Who would take on the president of the United States who has shown he has no problem using the full force of the powers -- including illegitimate ones -- that he has to make life miserable for Americans who earn his ire (the IRS is just one agency he can use; so is the Department of Justice, EPA, and Homeland Security, for starters)?
Obama has been derelict for so long as President that even liberal Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus has all but declared him AWOL -- and that was in 2011.
As has been reported by Marc Theissen, at the Washington Post, President Obama routinely skipped daily intelligence briefings over the years;
The Government Accountability Institute, a new conservative investigative research organization, examined President Obama’s schedule from the day he took office until mid-June 2012, to see how often he attended his Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) — the meeting at which he is briefed on the most critical intelligence threats to the country. During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times — or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent — falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting.
After all, it is more fun golfing, vacationing, playing with NBA superstars and watching ESPN than actually working.
The former head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, has said that bad decisions by Obama on Syria and Iraq led to the rise of ISIS and that Obama ignoring the advice of his national security team to arm moderate rebels helped ISIS grow. Panetta said Obama decided to overrule his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey.
In other words, Obama ignored the advice of his entire national security team and his habit of voting “present” facilitated the rise of ISIS and the deaths of many thousands of innocent people, including Americans.
Now Obama is trying to revise history and doing what comes so naturally to him, blaming others for his failures (for other examples, see Obama The Blamethrower).
Who will he blame when Iran gets the nuclear bomb? Probably Israel or George Bush.