August 11, 2016

Obama’s Islamic State

From Trump’s comments to Obama’s manipulated intelligence.

Barack Obama is “the founder of ISIS,” says Donald Trump. “I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.” Thus began yet another opportunity for the Leftmedia to jump to Obama’s and Clinton’s defense, hollering, “That’s not true! Obama and Clinton didn’t found the Islamic State — they’re trying to defeat them!”

Conservative radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt gave Trump the opportunity to hone his message, saying, “You meant that he created the vacuum — he lost the peace.”

“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS,” Trump insisted. “He was the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give [it to] her, too, by the way — Hillary Clinton.”

Could Trump have said this (or a thousand other things) better? Definitely. He’s making it way too easy for Democrats and their media allies. Besides, his own history of various positions on the Iraq war makes him a compromised messenger, too.

But, like his point about Hillary’s contempt for the Second Amendment, Trump’s core criticism is sound. Hewitt’s framing is the correct one: By cravenly abandoning Iraq to fulfill an ill-conceived campaign promise, Obama created the vacuum that allowed the rise of the Islamic State. Conservatives have been arguing this for years. Trump’s framing, however, puts that in far stronger terms. Obama is not showing “Inherent Resolve” in fighting the Islamic State. On the contrary, he seems perfectly content to largely ignore the threat to prove he’s not Islamophobic. Technically, of course, Obama didn’t “found” the Islamic State, but he sure did everything he could to clear the way for it to flourish.

And he had blinders on while he did it. The House released a bombshell report Thursday confirming what we reported a year ago: Obama was using cooked intelligence to paint a rosier picture of the Islamic State’s condition. Central Command was, almost surely to comport with his political narrative, giving reports that were “inconsistent with the judgments of many senior, career analysts.” Further, the House report found, “these products also consistently described U.S. actions in a more positive light than other assessments from the [intelligence community] and were typically more optimistic than actual events warranted.”

Obviously, Obama had a political narrative to tell — the Islamic State was the “JV team” and he had al-Qaida “on the run” because he killed Osama bin Laden. He needed the intelligence to undergird that story. Trump is merely highlighting in the most visceral terms that this is one of Obama’s biggest lies.

(Edited.)

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.