Chaos is spreading from the Middle East outward as hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees pour into Europe. Over the last decade millions of Iraqis and Syrians have fled their homes. Western governments are proving far better at assigning blame than finding solutions.
The Republican meme is that every problem, including in the Middle East, is Barack Obama’s fault. Although emphasizing independence and self-reliance for America, they deny responsibility and accountability for their party. According to the GOP, George W. Bush left America and the world secure. The feckless Obama administration allowed the collapse of Iraq and rise of the Islamic State.
For instance, Jeb Bush defended his brother’s policies. He cited the ‘brilliant, heroic, and costly’ success of the Iraqi troop surge, asking ‘why was the success of the surge followed by a withdrawal from Iraq, leaving not even the residual force that commanders and the joint chiefs knew was necessary?’ He complained that ‘now we have the creation of ISIS.’ In contrast, he contended, ‘had we kept the 10,000 troop commitment that was there for the President to negotiate and to agree with, we probably wouldn’t have ISIS right now.’ Bush declared that ‘The one thing about my brother: he kept us safe.’
Bobby Jindal declared that today’s problems were not ‘because of President Bush’s strength, but rather have come about because of President Obama’s weakness.’ Rick Santorum announced: ‘ISIS came about because they hate everything that we believe in and we stand for.’ The group ‘is not something that America had anything to do with.’
This post was published at David Stockmans Contra Corner on September 23, 2015.
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