{"id":24380,"date":"2015-08-10T09:04:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T14:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/?p=24380"},"modified":"2015-08-10T09:04:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T14:04:53","slug":"why-did-obama-back-jihadists-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/?p=24380","title":{"rendered":"Why Did Obama Back Jihadists in Syria?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece<\/a> in Foreign Policy Journal<\/i> is certainly eye-opening:<\/p>\n

In Al Jazeera\u2019s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West\u2019s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House\u2019s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was \u201ca willful decision.\u201d [Lengthy discussion of the DIA memo begins at the 8:50 mark.]<\/p>\n

Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question\u2014Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:<\/p>\n

Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn\u2019t listening?<\/p>\n

Flynn: I think the administration.<\/p>\n

Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?<\/p>\n

Flynn: I don\u2019t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.<\/p>\n

Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?<\/p>\n

Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they\u2019re doing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The deeply puzzling thing about Obama’s Middle East policy is it’s sheer incoherence (except, of course, his unwavering dislike of Israel). His fixation on taking out Bashar Assad (a bad actor, to be sure, but not in the same league as the Iranian Mullahs who back Assad, and who Obama evidently has no qualms negotiating with) makes no strategic sense. In light of the above, he’s evidently funding the Islamic State in Syria, fighting it (in the most desultory manner possible) in Iraq, giving in to Iran on nuclear weapons, alienating allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, and has no discernible policy for a post-Morsi Egypt. Obama’s moves only make sense if he wants<\/i> to promote a Sunni\/Shia civil war, or as Obama’s personal fits of pique where he feels slighted. (Screw Syria for ignoring his red lines. Screw Israel for daring to reelect Netanyahu. Screw Iraq for Bush succeeding.)<\/p>\n

The only certainty about Obama’s foreign policy is that future administrations will be dealing with the repercussions from his feckless, aimless foreign policy for decades to come. <\/p>\n

(Hat tip: Jihad Watch<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This piece in Foreign Policy Journal is certainly eye-opening: In Al Jazeera\u2019s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West\u2019s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":11,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,31,194],"tags":[1086,842,2870,54,72,2867,74,2874,64,502,537],"class_list":["post-24380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-policy","category-jihad","category-military","tag-bashar-assad","tag-egypt","tag-foreign-policy","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-jihad","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-obama","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-syria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24380"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24392,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24380\/revisions\/24392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}