On Monday, ISIS consolidated its takeover of the major Iraqi city of Ramadi, pushing thousands of terrified Iraqis from the city in anticipation of the rape and murder sure to follow. According to Fox News:
Some 8,000 people have fled the embattled streets of Ramadi as thousands of ISIS fighters seized the key Iraqi city, killing some 500, and reportedly going door-to-door looking for Iraqi government troops and police to run out of town.
A spokesman for the Anbar provincial government said that ISIS had executed supposed allies of the Iraqi regime in the street. A U.S. military official told Fox News the fight was “pretty much over for now.”
Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State when President Obama pulled American troops out of Iraq, leaving the country a security vacuum quickly exploited by ISIS in the west and Iran in the east. Clinton said that there was indeed a “plan in place” for Iraqi security after the pullout:
The Iraqi government is looking forward. They’re trying to chart a new course that will give them the kind of independence and sovereignty from everyone, including their big neighbor, Iran, and we’re going to support that. It’s very much in America’s interests to do so.
She also stated, “No one should miscalculate America’s resolve and commitment to helping support the Iraqi democracy. We have paid too high a price to give the Iraqis this chance and I hope that Iran and no one else miscalculates that.” She then praised President Obama to the skies for his “great leadership in navigating to this point, fulfilling his promise, meeting the obligations that were entered into before he ever came into office.”
Three years later, after it was clear that Clinton’s policy in Iraq had turned a military victory into a major defeat, Clinton lied by attempting to blame George W. Bush for the pullout.
And thus, on Friday, The New York Times ran a full-length feature titled, “Like Hillary Clinton in ’08, Jeb Bush Is Haunted by Specter of Iraq War.” Except, of course, that regardless of his epic rhetorical stumbles, Jeb Bush never voted for the Iraq war (unlike Hillary), never failed to negotiate a status of forces agreement (unlike Hillary), and never advocated on behalf of a full-scale troop withdrawal (unlike Hillary). On Saturday, the Huffington Post ran a report titled, “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 81% Struggles to Explain Whether Invading Iraq Was A ‘Mistake.’” MSNBC reported, “Rubio Steps In Jeb Bush’s Iraq Quicksand.” Senator Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 93% and Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) were similarly grilled about Iraq this weekend.
Meanwhile, Hillary continues to sail along, unscathed, though she was personally involved in both greenlighting the Iraq war given the same intelligence George W. Bush had, and though she personally participated in the pullout strategy from Iraq. The media’s current focus on the takeover of Ramadi, coordinated simultaneously with the national discussion around various Republican candidates and their positions on wars in which they were never involved, once again serves Hillary’s interests. No wonder she doesn’t bother answering media questions. Why should she, when she can get them to ask her opponents questions she could never answer?
