ByOmar RiveroPosted on June 18, 2016
When influential progressive author and daughter of John Birch Society founding members Claire Conner heard John McCain shamelessly claim that Pres. Obama is “directly responsible” for the Orlando massacre, she immediately took to Facebook and wrote this epic, fact-filled rant that took the disgraced Senator to task for his monumental hypocrisy. Needless to say, it is PERFECT:
Donald Trump is not the only GOPer attacking President Obama over the Pulse massacre. Old John McCain had to get in on the blame Obama festival by claiming that President Obama is personally responsible for Orlando because he removed the troops from Iraq.
John McCain has, apparently, forgotten the real facts of the Iraq war and the troop withdrawals. Lets refresh the old man’s memory, shall we? And, we can refresh our memories, too.
1. John McCain supported the war in Iraq. He was one of the most ardent fans of invading Iraq and every other step taking by the Bush administration.
2. In 2008, before President Obama took office, President Bush signed a Status of Forces agreement with Iraq. It established that U.S. combat forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and all U.S. combat forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011.
3. The Iraqis wanted the US forces out of Iraq. They viewed us as occupiers. 75% of Americans wanted our troops to come home, too.
4. President Obama tried to renegotiate the withdrawal and leave 10,000 US troops in Iraq. The State Department’s lawyers said troops couldn’t stay in Iraq unless the Iraqi parliament authorized them to do so, including granting them immunity from Iraqi law. The Iraqi parliamentarians would never OK such a decision, with Iraqi popular opinion staunchly against U.S. troops staying.
5. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki – who was the Bush administrataion’s choice to run Iraq – said this about troop withdrawals: “The incomplete sovereignty and the presence of foreign troops are the most dangerous, most complicated and most burdensome legacy we have faced since the time of dictatorship. Iraq should get rid of them to protect its young democratic experiment.”
6. Our troops withdrew in Dec. 2011 before ISIS.
7. al-Maliki attacked Sunnis across Iraq in the following two years. The sectarian violence was a key part of the rise of ISIS as the Sunni leadership abandoned Maliki.
8. The Sunni-Shiite rift in Iraq and the Middle East has been going on since the 7th century.
9. The Iraqi army deteriorated.
10. The greatest catalyst for the rise of ISIS was the Syrian Civil War.
Finally, let’s remember that the GOP KNOWS all of thise. And that includes John McCain. But, rather than accept the facts and work together to fight the ISIS threat, the GOP blames the President.
America couldn’t agree more, Claire!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Just to iron out a few more details…
Daesh, also known as the Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL, depending on what translation you prefer) was founded in Jordan in 1999 as the Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad by Abu al-Zarqawi in order to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy. The JTJ moved into Iraq in following the US invasion – which McCain was in full support of – and began orchestrating the guerrilla campaign against the occupation forces, building a network among disparate rebel groups and bringing in foreign jihadis to repel the American “crusaders” and pioneered the playbook for modern jihadis – kidnappings, IEDs, suicide bombings, filmed executions.
In 2004, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda “franchised” the JTJ, which became Al-Qaeda in Iraq. In 2006, the AQI joined with several other Sunni jihadi groups and established the Islamic State of Iraq on October 12th. Their attempts to assert control over several cities was thwarted by the 2007 “surge,” but the dysfunction of the Noumar al-Maliki government in Baghdad and the purposeful disenfranchisement of the Sunni provinces of Anbar and Nineveh allowed them to solidify their positions. The outbreak of the Syrian Civil War and the establishment of al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra in 2011 prompted a divorce between al-Qaeda and the ISI. The Syrian Civil War created enough chaos for Daesh to hold territory. Financial and material support we suspect came from Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
By 2014, the group was strong enough to take the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Fallujah, which were abandoned by a fleeing and demoralized Iraqi army, abandoning much of the high-tech weaponry that the Bush administration had given to them and giving ISI the tools they needed to declare a worldwide caliphate.
Without a doubt, the McCain-backed 2003 invasion of Iraq set the stage for the rise of the Islamic State and flooded the entire region with fighters and weaponry, which are still waging perpetual war. As Iraqi coalition forces fight to retake Fallujah for the third time in eight years, we can thank the warmongering of Mr. McCain and the rest of the neocon establishment for giving a rag-tag group of zealots the opportunity to grow into a global threat.
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