Obama's Appeasement Midwifes the Birth of Islamic #Caliphate In Iraq

At IBD:

Ramirez cartoon: Don't forget your golf clubs, Mr. President http://t.co/g3FPhUCodj #Iraq pic.twitter.com/0HW3yjxIID
— IBDeditorials (@IBDeditorials) June 14, 2014

From Syria to Iraq to Afghanistan to Pakistan, the jihadist dream of a caliphate stretching from the Atlantic to the Himalayas is taking shape. It's aided by a feckless foreign policy not seen since Neville Chamberlain.

As President Obama learns about it in the newspapers, the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is dismembering Iraq, adding Saddam Hussein's birthplace of Tikrit to the list of cities once liberated by the U.S. that are now flying jihadist flags. The war on terrorism is over all right, and Obama lost it.

An American official has told The Blaze that the U.S. Embassy, United Nations and other foreign organizations with a presence in Iraq are "preparing contingency plans to evacuate employees." We might soon see helicopters on the roof of our embassy in Baghdad in a scene reminiscent of the last days of Saigon as Iraq becomes Obama's Vietnam.

Unlike Vietnam, ISIS is not interested in liberating the homeland from colonial oppressors. ISIS and other radical Islamists have long proclaimed a goal of restoring a pan-Islamic state, a caliphate that extends from the Mediterranean coast to the Iranian border. One such Islamic empire, in the seventh century, spanned the Middle East, spread to Southwest Asia, North Africa and Spain, ending with the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258.

The largest and most powerful rebel force in Syria is Jabhat al-Nusra, with 7,000 fighters. It's a branch of al-Qaida in Iraq, from which it has received regular payments.

"It's now time to declare in front of the people of the Levant and (the) world that the al-Nusra Front is but an extension of the Islamic State in Iraq and part of it," Iraqi al-Qaida leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is quoted as saying recently in a piece on AlArabiya.net.

"This (ISIS' rise in Iraq) is of great significance," according to an assessment released Wednesday by the Soufan Group, a private security company. A restored caliphate will attract "many more disaffected young people ... from all over the Muslim world, especially the Middle East, lured by nostalgia for al-Khulafa al-Islamiya (the Islamic caliphate), which remains a potent motivator for Sunni extremists."

Restoring the caliphate was the stated goal of Osama bin Laden in creating al-Qaida, but the terrorist group was never designed to take and hold territory as is ISIS, now flush with captured cash and weaponry.

"It's ISIS that will build the caliphate, not al-Qaida," says Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, who monitors jihadist activity for the Middle East Forum...

Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Calls for Shia Jihad

Following-up from yesterday, "Thousands Heed Call to Arms in #Iraq: Top Shiite Cleric Urges Defense Against Fast-Moving Sunni Insurgents, Fanning Sectarian Conflict."

Here's the clip, from Telegraph UK:



And the latest from CNN, "Iraq's leaders scramble to rally forces against militant advance."

#ISIS Claims Credit for Kidnapping Israeli Teenagers

From Algemeiner, at the link.

Terror Cell Affiliated With Bloodthirsty #ISIS Claims Responsibility for Presumed Kidnapping of Israeli Teens http://t.co/c0ZkS7B3IA #Israel
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 14, 2014

#WATCH: Nighttime search for 3 missing #Israeli teenagers. We will work day & night to bring them home http://t.co/HA6gI0kxoV
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 14, 2014

#EXCLUSIVE: Inside look at the search for 3 teens presumed kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists #BringBackOurBoys http://t.co/qco4Hi3as9
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 14, 2014

And from the IDF spokesman, who discounts ISIS claims.

#IDF is operating under the presumption that the 3 #Israeli teens were abducted by #Palestinian militants. Our Mission, bring them home ASAP

— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) June 14, 2014

Ukraine Army Plane Shot Down

At BCF, "Pro-Russian rebels shoot down large Ukrainian transport plane, killing dozens."

Also at AP, "Raw: Military Plane Shot Down in Ukraine."

And Russia Today (FWIW), "Ukraine military Il-76 plane downed by self-defense forces in Lugansk," and "Moment Ukraine Il-76 military transport jet shot down in Lugansk."

Bare-Faced #ISIS Executioner Shakir Wahiyib

A jihadi rock star.

Well, let's not celebrate these ghouls too much now, eh?

At Telegraph UK, "Iraq crisis: the bare faced ISIS executioner who spreads terror with his open killing":

Shakir Wahiyib is a feared enforcer for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham who does not cover up his face in videos of his killings.

In an army full of masked, black-clad figures, he is the one man who is never shy to show his face. But for those unlucky enough to cross him, the face of Shakir Wahiyib, a feared enforcer for the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, is often the last they will ever see.

The star of a series of grisly jihadist videos, including one in which three men are executed after failing his "Quranic quiz", Wahiyib is one of the few publicly-identified leaders of the shadowy jihadist group that has swept through northern Iraq.

The bare faced ISIS executioner who spreads terror with his open killing http://t.co/MmlJY58A29 pic.twitter.com/D99Xfxt1o6
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 14, 2014

Whoa J-Lo!

Jennifer Lopez for Billboard magazine, looking fit and fabulous.

See, "Whoa, J.Lo! Jennifer Lopez Billboard Cover Shoot."

“@JV3GA90: Who Cover of @billboard Magazine well duh it @JLo of course showing you body for the Gods #JLoAKAjune17 pic.twitter.com/ipoZ5svTvS” 😊

— Jennifer Lopez (@JLo) June 13, 2014

Chrissie Hynde Out With Debut Solo Album

Toby Harnden retweeted Chrissie Hynde yesterday. Amazing.

At the New York Times, "Chrissie Hynde, Minus the Pretenders."

And Sydney Morning Herald, "Hard rockin' Chrissie Hynde unleashes solo album: 'I'm way past writing my break-up album'."

The album, "Stockholm," is out in vinyl (along with digital formats, naturally).

"Ignore every 'expert' who tells you that #ISIS is not al Qaeda because their leaders don't get along..."

Yes, exactly.

People keep saying that Ayman al-Zawahiri dissed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, excoriating ISIS as "too extreme" blah, blah.

The mind boggles. You can do a million point-blank executions to the back of the head, and beheadings until Kingdom come, but don't tell me murdering nearly 3,000 people on September 11 doesn't quite match up. Taking down the Twin Towers? Seriously. It's hard to get more extreme. Or, well, come back and get me when al-Baghdadi secures his own personal nukes. An atomic al-Qaeda would be pretty extreme indeed.

But see Bare Naked Islam, down at the conclusion here, "ISIS winning in Iraq despite being greatly outnumbered by 15 to 1."

'Al Qaeda Has Been Decimated...'

At White House Dossier, "Obama During Campaign: 'Al Qaeda Has Been Decimated'."

Iraq Lost Iraq

Some food for thought, from DrewM., at AoSHQ, "America Isn't 'Losing' Iraq, Iraq Is":

Obama won the 2008 election in no small part because he promised to get the US out of Iraq. John McCain lost in no small part because he famously argued we should stay "100 years" if that's what it took. The American people made their choice. To now say that having won on getting out of Iraq Obama should have instead turned around and adopted McCain's losing policy idea is absurd.

This does not absolve Obama from his negligent inaction in the face of the imminent threat presented by the still growing ISIS invasion. That's entirely on Obama and his band of national security incompetents. But the great "loss of Iraq"? That's on the Iraqis. They were given a chance to build a decent country after Saddam's removal and they squandered it.

I think it's a little more complicated (Obama "turned around" on a lot of things in national security since 2008, for example), but the bottom line on ISIS is correct.

Planned Parenthood Counsels Underage Girl in Bondage and Sadomasochism

Go to the website, from Lila Grace Rose and Live Action, "Planned Parenthood Exposed."

And Ms. Rose is interviewed by Dana Loesch, at the Blaze, "Lila Rose and Dana Loesch on Planned Parenthood Exposé ."

More from Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "Planned Parenthood: BDSM advocate no longer counseling teens; Update: Live Action derides “the token firing” strategy; Update: PP lied about termination?"

Leftists Long for Saddam Hussein

From Tom Wilson, at Commentary, "Liberals Longing for Saddam":

When the invasion of Iraq took place, many left-liberal commentators—particularly those in Britain and Europe—had a curious response. Of course they detested Saddam, they assured us, but might it not be the case that Saddam—a strong man—was the only person who could govern “a place like that”? This stunning suggestion that human rights and basic freedom might not be for everyone, that some human beings are just better off under despotism, was shocking then and its shocking to consider now. But for the most part these arguments faded from discussion as a jittery democratic reality got off the ground in Iraq. What good liberal would want to consign the Iraqi people back to the dark days of Saddam? Besides, one got the impression that most of these voices weren’t actually that favorable toward the Baathist regime, they just hated the thought of the use of Western power far more.

Now, however, with Iraq descending into chaos once again—arguably as much the result of the strength of Islamism as the weakness of democracy—these “liberals” are dusting off those old arguments and wheeling them back out in another attempt to bamboozle a public they’ve already spent over a decade misleading. Yet, one voice has gone much further. Chris Maume, an editor at the UK Independent, who by all accounts spent much time in Iraq during the glory days of Saddam, not only takes this opportunity to sow doubts about the wisdom of the war in Iraq, but even does so by mounting the most astonishing defense of life under Saddam.

Whitewashing the poverty suffered by most Iraqis compared to the obscene wealth enjoyed by the Saddam’s ruling clan, Maume reflects, “Baghdad was noisy and mucky and full of building sites, but it was bustling and thriving. There wasn’t a huge amount in the shops, but people had all they needed to get by.” Perhaps they did, but you can’t imagine writers for the Independent ever insisting that the underprivileged in Western countries have long “had all they needed to get by.”

Maume writes particularly glowingly about the healthcare available in Iraq, as well as the order and stability compared to today. Back in the good old days it was “a fully functioning state in which it was possible to live a fulfilled life.” Of course Maume wouldn’t be so callous as not to spare a thought for Saddam’s victims; “If you were Kurdish, or a dissident, life wasn’t like that, and I’m not suggesting for a second that we should forget their suffering. But by and large, life was OK in Saddam’s dictatorship.” And of course to the estimated 180,000 Kurds murdered by Saddam, one should also add the oppression of the marsh Arabs. But it sounds as if Maume accepts what happened to them as the price for the “benefits” that other Iraqis enjoyed under Saddam. And yet it isn’t hard to think of other despotic regimes where, provided you weren’t the wrong ethnic group, perhaps for a time life was perfectly pleasant for everyone else...

Keep reading.

Not only did leftists long for Saddam, they longed for --- and actively worked toward --- U.S. defeat in Iraq. And seeing the sheer ideological blindness of leftists blaming the Bush administration for the current crisis is almost beyond belief. It's staggering even. Erik Loomis had this yesterday, for example, "The next few days (weeks?) are going to be insane. Can we make a running list of writers to never take seriously again after they claim the U.S. should send troops to Iraq or attack Obama for withdrawing those troops?"

"Never take seriously." That would be any leftist discussing national security.

Can U.S. Embassy in #Iraq Withstand ISIS Attack?

I suppose it's a good question.

Mostly, though, I expect the helicopters will land on the roof and that'll be it. And apparently that's no easy trick, with so many personnel to evaculate.

At CNN:

Is the U.S. Embassy in #Baghdad able to protect Americans against an #ISIS attack? @eliselabottcnn reports: http://t.co/0WN39CBEOz

— CNN Video (@CNNVideo) June 14, 2014

U.S. Options in #Iraq

So far, Retired Army Lieutenant General James Dubik had the best analysis, "U.S. Must Act to Prevent Extremists’ Victory in #Iraq."

Something to think about in light of this report from CBS Evening News:

Thousands Heed Call to Arms in #Iraq

At the Wall Street Journal, "Top Shiite Cleric Urges Defense Against Fast-Moving Sunni Insurgents, Fanning Sectarian Conflict":

Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric issued a rare call to arms to defend against attacking Sunni insurgents, portending a wider sectarian conflict as thousands of young men heeded his words.  Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who has millions of followers world-wide, called on all able men to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot, whose lightning offensive across a large swath of western Iraq this past week sent tremors across the region.

"Given the current threat facing Iraq, defending the land, honor and holy places is a religious duty," said a statement from Ayatollah Sistani that was read by his representative at a Friday sermon in Karbala.

The statement came as the U.S. declared a "shared interest" with Iran in subduing the Islamist insurgents and President Barack Obama said his administration would consider a range of responses in the coming days to help Iraq's defense, including airstrikes.

Ayatollah Sistani's call was quickly answered by thousands of gun-toting men, who emerged in Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities to declare their readiness to join a holy war. TV images showed young men lining up behind pickup trucks and outside of military bases.

Ayatollah Sistani's call followed a chorus of statements from prominent Shiite clerics in Qom and Najaf this week seeking unity among Shiites to join the government's armed struggle against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS.

The developments underscore the inability of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government to muster sufficient military force to blunt the rebel force. Four days after the insurgents captured Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, with little military resistance, the weakness of Iraq's forces was again evident on Friday during battles raging for control of the corridors leading to the capital Baghdad.

Ayatollah Sistani, whose influence across the Shiite world is unrivaled, rarely involves himself in politics and military strategy. He follows a Shiite doctrine known as "quietism," which promotes Islamic principles but shuns a political role for its clerics.

Even during the height of Iraq's civil war, the reclusive 83-year-old cleric refrained from issuing a fatwa to fight Americans or Sunni insurgents.

That he would do so now suggests that Ayatollah Sistani and the Shiite community views ISIS—and its loose alliance with disenfranchised Sunni tribes and insurgent groups—as the most significant threat Iraq's government has faced.

"Sistani wants to say he did his part under grave circumstances," said Mehdi Khalaji, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and an expert in Shiite theology. "No one has been as anti-Shiite as ISIS, not the Sunnis and certainly not the Americans."

More.

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters on #Iraq Crisis: 'Very Good Chance Our Embassy Will Be Attacked...'

"This is going to make Benghazi look like chump change."

Listen at the second half of the clip. Peters has sources inside the military intelligence community and they are "horrified" at developments in Iraq.



The first half, also excellent, discusses Bowe Bergdahl's return to the U.S.

Peters is livid that he's receiving better medical care than our veterans. Rather than a court martial, Obama wants to give Bergdahl a "general discharge" at full benefits for life.

PREVIOUSLY: "Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: 'In the Middle East, the United States Is Now In its Weakest Position Since 1945...'"

Faces of Hate: The Extremists and Bigots Behind #BDS

At Algemeiner, "‘Who’s Behind the Hate at NYU?’ Asks New Ad Campaign":

A new ad campaign appeared online on Wednesday, drawing attention to the New York University faculty member who heads the American Studies Association that is calling for an academic boycott of Israel.

Advocacy group The Israel Project funded the campaign.  The ad was delivered by Google AdWords on news sites and went to a landing page entitled Peace Not Hate.

The campaign asks, “Why is NYU supporting academic bigotry?”

“Last year, the American Studies Association (ASA) joined the hate-campaign against Israel by voting to boycott Israeli professors,” it said.  “NYU should have immediately pulled their funding of the group, like other universities. But NYU has continued to fund its ASA chapter.”

“By steering university funding to a group that fuels academic bigotry, NYU is betraying its students and its own commitment to academic openness.”  The webpage linked to a petition before exhorting readers, including alumni who might be worried about the school’s “good name.”

It said, “Don’t let a fringe group of haters and extremists demonize Israel and dirty the good name of NYU.”  “Tell NYU to live up to its highest principals. Add your name and email to tell NYU: Honor truth. Stop funding hate.”

While New York University’s president and provost have condemned the ASA’s boycott. the group’s new president, NYU Social and Cultural Analysis Professor Lisa Duggan, was pilloried for her stance, and muddled arguments, by Forbes Investigative Journalist Richard Behar, in a 15,000-word exposé.

The saga continued when Duggan, a lesbian, accused the veteran reporter of homophobia by noting that rather than any expertise in the Middle East, Duggan teaches ‘Queer Historiographies and Constructions of Whiteness in the United States.’

Keep reading.

The campaign's "Peace Not Hate" website is here.

And previously, "Letter Protesting Professor Lisa Duggan's Racist Anti-Israel Conference to NYU President John Sexton."

Brooke Goldstein: #ISIS Jihadis 'Are Now Coming Home...'

This was on Megyn Kelly's show last night, and it's good.

Goldstein brilliantly extrapolates from the current crisis in Iraq to the likely consequences for American security. She argues we're practically begging for a new wave of attacks on the U.S. homeland, and "god forbid," perhaps even another 9/11.



Marc Thiessen was on just before Goldstein, and that segment is here, "Brutal New Terror Group Parading Police Hostages Through Iraq Cities - The Kelly File."

Russian Fashion Model Svetlana Cluck

A needed break from Iraq war blogging, at Corridor40, "SVETLANA CLUCK BY ATTILIO D’AGOSTINO FOR POLANSKI MAGAZINE VOL. 3."

John McCain Pushes Back Against MSNBC's Cut-and-Run 'Confusion' on #Iraq

Folks may remember, back in late 2007, I was blogging all out for John McCain for the 2008 GOP primaries. McCain's lost a lot of credibility since his defeat to Obama in the general election that year --- and to this day I cringe at his treasonous McShamnesty programs --- but I'll never regret supporting his presidential campaign because I knew a President McCain would have never allowed the collapse of Iraq, the likes of which we're watching unfold in real time.

So now he's back in his element as the region goes up in flames. It's only a matter of days now, if not hours, until the fall of Baghdad, and the MSNBC hacks like Mika Brzezinski want to go back and "re-litigate" the origins of the war in 2003. That's to be expected, as McCain so ably points out at the clip.

And as we go forward, literally for the remainder of this presidency, the question of "Who lost Iraq?" is going to dominate. And with a string of other foreign policy disasters to his name, I can guarantee you that President Obama's going to come up wanting badly, and people will be pining for the leadership of former President George W. Bush.

At Politico, "McCain Iraq interview gets heated."

Cowardly Collapse of Iraq Security Forces in Face of #ISIS Barbarity

Following up from earlier, "Extended Civil War Likely in #Iraq."

I exchanged tweets with Louise Mensch:

WSJ: Iaqi soldiers dressing in civies beneath their military uniforms "in case they have to flee" #Baghdad http://t.co/CHhvn007ga
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 13, 2014

@AmPowerBlog such cowards as they are. I read 10k of them fled 800 men.
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 13, 2014

@AmPowerBlog I despair of modern men at times. Masculinity, honour is dead
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 13, 2014

And now see the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Fear, sectarian divisions, low morale lie behind collapse of Iraqi forces in face of militants":

CAIRO — The video, set to sweetly lilting religious hymns, is chilling. Islamic militants are shown knocking on the door of a Sunni police major in the dead of night in an Iraqi city. When he answers, they blindfold and cuff him. Then they carve off his head with a knife in his own bedroom.

The 61-minute video was recently posted online by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaida splinter group of Sunni extremists. The intent was to terrorize Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.

That fear is one factor behind the stunning collapse of Iraqi security forces when fighters led by the Islamic State overran the cities of Mosul and Tikrit this week, sweeping over a swath of Sunni-majority territory. In most cases, police and soldiers simply ran, sometimes shedding their uniforms, and abandoned arsenals of heavy weapons.

Even after the United States spent billions of dollars training the armed forces during its 2003-2011 military presence in Iraq, the 1 million-member army and police remain riven by sectarian discontents, corruption and a lack of professionalism.

Many Sunnis in the armed forces are unprepared to die fighting on behalf of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government, which many in their minority community accuse of sharp bias against them. The Islamic State has exploited this by touting itself as the Sunnis' champion against Shiites.

Shiites in the armed forces, in turn, feel isolated and deeply vulnerable trying to hold on to Sunni-majority areas.

Desertion has been heavy the past six months among forces in the western province of Anbar, Iraq's Sunni heartland, where troops have been fighting in vain to uproot Islamic State fighters who took over the city of Fallujah, said two high officials — one in the government and the other in the intelligence services.

The militants who early this week swept into the northern city of Mosul included former Sunni army officers who had deserted out of frustration with al-Maliki's government, the two officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence reports.

As the militants approached, the two officials said, many of the top army commanders in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, fled to the autonomous Kurdish region...

Continue reading.

More at Atlas Shrugs, "Heads of Iraqi Policemen And Soldiers Line Streets of Mosul, Brutal Sharia Imposed" and Bare Naked Islam, "IRAQ: ISIS terrorists’ mass executions and beheadings of Iraqi soldiers and civilians (WARNING: Graphic)."

Obama Subpar on #Iraq

Following up from previously, "While #Iraq Falls to al Qaeda, Obama is Off to Fundraise and Play Golf in Palm Springs."

And seen today on Twitter:

Pamela Brown

She's been anchoring CNN's Newsroom, in for Brooke Baldwin.

What a sweetie.

Are You Reading Theo Spark?

Lots of lovely blogging over there of late.

Especially the photos, here and here, for example.

Extended Civil War Likely in #Iraq

More great coverage today at the Wall Street Journal, as you can see from my front-page tweet, and the newspaper's beautiful graphic of the region and key actors.

And here's today's editorial on the crisis, "The Iraq Debacle":

#ISIS raises the black flag in #Iraq, on the cover of today's @WSJ. pic.twitter.com/N7OTbW7QcL
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 13, 2014

Islamist militants are aiming to redraw the map of the Middle East. http://t.co/TEmuQGp9vu #ISIS pic.twitter.com/UZU27TzrR6
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 13, 2014

The magnitude of the debacle now unfolding in Iraq is becoming clearer by the day, with the terrorist army of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, marching ever closer to Baghdad. On Tuesday the al Qaeda affiliate captured Mosul, a city with a population greater than Philadelphia's, a day later it took Tikrit in the Sunni heartland, and on Thursday ISIS commanders announced they plan to attack the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

No one should underestimate the danger this presents to the stability of the region and to America's national and economic security. An extended civil war seems to be the best near-term possibility. More dangerous is ISIS's ambition to establish a Muslim caliphate in the heart of the Persian Gulf, which would mean a safe haven for Islamic terrorism that would surely target the U.S. The danger to Iraq's oil exports of three million barrels a day is already sending prices up and global equities down.

***

The threat to Baghdad is real and more imminent than is widely understood. Four Iraqi divisions have melted away before the 3000-5,000 ISIS force, which is gaining deadlier weapons as it advances. One source says Iraqi soldiers who are supposed to protect Baghdad are dressing in civilian clothes beneath their military uniforms in case they have to flee. Iraq's air power, such as it is, could soon be grounded if civilian contractors are endangered.

President Obama finally addressed the spreading chaos during a photo-op with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday, noting "a lot of concern" but making no commitments to help. The White House turned down an urgent appeal from Baghdad to intervene with air strikes, leaving Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki little choice but to turn to Iran to fill the breach—and extend its influence. Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden is said to be on top of things from the Situation Room. Inshallah.

The prospect of Iraq's disintegration is already being spun by the Administration and its media friends as the fault of George W. Bush and Mr. Maliki. So it's worth understanding how we got here.  Iraq was largely at peace when Mr. Obama came to office in 2009. Reporters who had known Baghdad during the worst days of the insurgency in 2006 marveled at how peaceful the city had become thanks to the U.S. military surge and counterinsurgency. In 2012 Anthony Blinken, then Mr. Biden's top security adviser, boasted that, "What's beyond debate" is that "Iraq today is less violent, more democratic, and more prosperous. And the United States is more deeply engaged there than at any time in recent history."

Mr. Obama employed the same breezy confidence in a speech last year at the National Defense University, saying that "the core of al Qaeda" was on a "path to defeat," and that the "future of terrorism" came from "less capable" terrorist groups that mainly threatened "diplomatic facilities and businesses abroad." Mr. Obama concluded his remarks by calling on Congress to repeal its 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force against al Qaeda.

If the war on terror was over, ISIS didn't get the message. The group, known as Tawhid al-Jihad when it was led a decade ago by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was all but defeated by 2009 but revived as U.S. troops withdrew and especially after the uprising in Syria spiraled into chaos. It now controls territory from the outskirts of Aleppo in northwestern Syria to Fallujah in central Iraq.

The possibility that a long civil war in Syria would become an incubator for terrorism and destabilize the region was predictable, and we predicted it. "Now the jihadists have descended by the thousands on Syria," we noted last May. "They are also moving men and weapons to and from Iraq, which is increasingly sinking back into Sunni-Shiite civil war. . . . If Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki feels threatened by al Qaeda and a Sunni rebellion, he will increasingly look to Iran to help him stay in power."

More.

PREVIOUSLY: Here's yesterday's report on WSJ coverage, "Iran's Revolutionary Guard Deployed Against ISIS Forces in #Iraq."

EARLIER: Compare WSJ's editorial to NYT's, "New York Times Blames Nouri al-Maliki for #Obama Administration's Meltdown in the Middle East."

New York Times Blames Nouri al-Maliki for #Obama Administration's Meltdown in the Middle East

Typical cut-and-run drivel from the unofficial newspaper of record.

Check out this editorial, letting the Obama White House off the hook , "Iraq in Peril: Prime Minister Maliki Panics as Insurgents Gain":

What’s happening in Iraq is a disaster and it is astonishing that the Iraqis and the Americans, who have been sharing intelligence, seem to have been caught flat-footed by the speed of the insurgent victories and the army defections.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is said to be in a panic. It is hard to be surprised by that, because more than anyone he is to blame for the catastrophe. Mr. Maliki has been central to the political disorder that has poisoned Iraq, as he wielded authoritarian power in favor of the Shiite majority at the expense of the minority Sunnis, stoked sectarian conflict and enabled a climate in which militants could gain traction.

With stunning efficiency, Sunni militants in recent days captured Mosul, the second-largest city; occupied facilities in the strategic oil-refining town of Baiji; and are now headed for Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes and untold numbers have been killed.

The insurgency’s gains will not be a threat just to Iraq if the militants, who have also been fighting in Syria, succeed in establishing a radical Islamic state on the Iraq-Syria border. No one should want that — not the Kurds, not the Turks and not the Iranians.

The deadly surge is the work of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which grew out of Al Qaeda in Iraq and is considered even more violent than its predecessor. Since the United States withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011, the group has steadily gained strength and recruited thousands of foreign fighters; it broke with Al Qaeda earlier this year and is now viewed as a leader of global jihad.

As this week’s events unfolded, it was alarming to learn of the swift capitulation of thousands of Iraqi Army troops who surrendered their weapons to the enemy and disappeared. After disbanding Saddam Hussein’s army in 2003 after the invasion by coalition forces and dismantling the government, the United States spent years and many billions of dollars building a new Iraqi Army, apparently for naught. The militants have captured untold quantities of American-supplied weaponry, including helicopters, and looted an estimated $425 million from Mosul’s banks.

And this is classic cover for Obama's absolute Middle East cluster:

The United States simply cannot be sucked into another round of war in Iraq. In any case, airstrikes and new weapons would be pointless if the Iraqi Army is incapable of defending the country.

Why would the United States want to bail out a dangerous leader like Mr. Maliki, who is attempting to remain in power for a third term as prime minister? It is up to Iraq’s leaders to show leadership and name a new prime minister who will share power, make needed reforms and include all sectarian and ethnic groups, especially disenfranchised Sunnis, in the country’s political and economic life — if, indeed, it is not too late.

Right.

Sooper Mexican nails it:

If you like your armed al Qaeda terrorist takeover you can keep your armed Al Qaeda terrorist takeover! pic.twitter.com/y4MWEQVTO0

— el Sooper (@SooperMexican) June 13, 2014

Obama Rules Out Ground Troops as #ISIS Jihadis Threaten Baghdad Takeover

At the Wall Street Journal, "Obama to Review Options on Iraq, But Will Send No Troops: President Says It's Ultimately Up to Iraqis to Resolve Situation."

And at CNN:

Latest on #Iraq as WH mulls options for possible military action: http://t.co/nzqwp45T1q
— CNN NationalSecurity (@NatSecCNN) June 13, 2014

PREVIOUSLY: "Iraq Crisis: Beheadings, Sharia Imposed as #ISIS Encircles Baghdad; 1,700 Shia Troops Executed; Refugee Crisis Mushrooms."

Iraq Crisis: Beheadings, Sharia Imposed as #ISIS Encircles Baghdad; 1,700 Shia Troops Executed; Refugee Crisis Mushrooms

Richard Engel at NBC News reports that ISIS jihadists have imposed sharia law on Mosul as they continue their incursion into Baghdad. See Washington Free Beacon, "Engel: Sharia Law Being Imposed, Militants Advancing Towards Baghdad."



ISIS brutality escalates, according to London's' Daily Mail, "Beheaded in his own bedroom: Iraq jihadists release horrific videos showing a policeman dragged from his bed and decapitated and motorists gunned down in random drive-by shootings: Battle lines drawn as Iraqi forces gather at base just 20 miles outside Baghdad after militants seize two more towns."

Baghdad residents are preparing for battle as ISIS inches closing to the city center. At Sky News UK, "Iraqis Told: 'Take Up Arms And Defend Country'."

More at Telegraph UK, "Iraq crisis: ISIS claims to have executed 1,700 Shia soldiers."

Also at the Huffington Post, "Iraq Refugee Population Increased By Nearly 800,000 This Year: UN."

And at the New York Times, "Iraqi Shiite Cleric Issues Call to Arms Against Sunni Militants."

As this post goes live President Obama is expected to deliver an address on the crisis. Barbara Starr at CNN is reporting a U.S. carrier group is being repositioned from the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf, should the administration call for airstrikes.

Expect updates...

ADDED: Here's CNN's breaking tweet the U.S. naval deployment, and as this update goes live the president is giving his press conference on the crisis:

Official: US to move aircraft carrier to Persian Gulf for possibility of airstrikes against militants in Iraq http://t.co/a7pyHS9thy
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 13, 2014

Obama to Iraq: You're on your own.

— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) June 13, 2014

President Obama Announces the End of Combat Operations in #Iraq (August 31, 2010)

Perhaps the most fateful decision of the Obama presidency, now playing out for the history books across the Middle East.

Here's the White House video on YouTube, from August 31, 2010, "The End of the Combat Mission in Iraq."

Here's the contemporaneous Fox News report, "Obama Marks End of U.S. Combat Mission in Iraq, Salutes Bush."

And ICYMI from the other day, Max Boot, at the Wall Street Journal, puts the missed opportunity for lasting stability in perspective, "Obama's Tragic Iraq Withdrawal."

And this Sky News video, just weeks before Obama's Oval Office address, provides some historical perspective on the decision. Former Ambassador John Bolton's comments are eerily prescient:

'The week of June 9th. Nothing was supposed to happen. All eyes were to have been on her, as she grandly rolled out her tome and swanned from one graciously conducted interview to the next. She would be queen of the week's news cycle...'

A wonderful post from Ann Althouse, "Poor Hillary! She thought she picked a boring week."

ABC's Jonathan Karl Calls Out Jay Carney on Obama's 'Signature Achievement' in #Iraq

At Instapundit, "FEET OF CLAY: ABC’s Jonathan Karl Casts Doubt on Obama’s Supposed Top Foreign-Policy Achievements."

And from Noah Rothman, at Hot Air, "Jon Karl presses Carney over whether Iraq remains one of Obama’s ‘signature achievements’."

Here's the video, "ABC's Jon Karl Grills W.H. Over Its Rhetoric & Reality on Iraq and Al Qaeda."

Islamist Militants Aim to Redraw Map of the Middle East — #Iraq

At the Wall Street Journal, "Governments Under Siege as ISIS Seeks to Impose Vision of Single Radical Islamist State":

At an annual security conference in Israel this week, the head of the military showed pictures of two long-dead diplomats.

Mark Sykes, an Englishman, and François Georges-Picot, a Frenchman, secured their place in history by cutting a deal that drew the borders of the modern Middle East.

The point of recalling the men: It suddenly appears those century-old borders, and the Middle Eastern states they defined, are being stretched and possibly erased.

"This entire system is disintegrating like a house of cards that starts to collapse," Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said.

A militant Islamist group that has carved out control of a swath of Syria has moved into Iraq, conquering cities and threatening the Iraqi government the U.S. helped create and support with billions of dollars in aid and thousands of American lives.

The group—known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham—isn't a threat only to Iraq and Syria. It seeks to impose its vision of a single radical Islamist state stretching from the Mediterranean coast of Syria through modern Iraq, the region of the Islamic Caliphates established in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Governments and borders are under siege elsewhere, as well. For more than a year, Shiite militias from Lebanon have moved into Syria and operated as a virtual arm of the Syrian government. Meanwhile, so many Syrian refugees have gone in the opposite direction—fleeing into Lebanon—that Lebanon now houses more school-age Syrian children than Lebanese children.

And in Iraq, the Kurdish population has carved out a homeland in the north of the country that—with the help of Turkey and against the wishes of the Iraqi government—exports its own oil, runs its own customs and immigration operations and fields its own military, known as the Peshmerga.

The picture is difficult for the U.S., which is deeply invested in keeping the region stable, and the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq is setting off alarm bells inside the Obama administration. The U.S. is weighing more direct military assistance to the government of Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki, the White House said Thursday, and officials hinted that aid might include airstrikes on militants who have edged to within a half-hour's drive of Baghdad.

"There will be some short-term immediate things that need to be done militarily," President Barack Obama said. "Our national security team is looking at all the options." Mr. Obama also urged Iraq's Shiite-dominated government to seek political paths for moderate Shiites and Sunnis to work together against jihadists. "This should be also a wake-up call for the Iraqi government," he said.

Why are the borders of today's Middle Eastern states suddenly so porous and ineffectual?  In short, the conflicts unleashed in Iraq and Syria have merged to become the epicenter of a struggle between the region's historic ethnic and religious empires: Persian-Shiite Iran, Arab-Sunni Saudi Arabia and Turkic-Sunni Muslim Turkey. Those three, each of whom has dominated the whole of the Middle East at one time or another in past millenniums, are now involved in the battle for influence from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.

Keep reading.

U.S. Must Act to Prevent Extremists’ Victory in #Iraq

Well, you'd think so.

From retired Army Lieutenant General James Dubik, at the Washington Post:

The war in Iraq was not over when the United States withdrew from Iraq in 2011. We just pretended that it was. Like it or not, our departure left a diplomatic and security vacuum that contributed to the crisis unfolding there. The government of Iraq floundered in that vacuum, promulgating the wrong domestic policies and allowing the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) to backslide to pre-2007 performance levels. The net result has been that Al-Qaeda in Iraq has not only reconstituted but expanded, drawing in many of those disenfranchised and disillusioned by Iraq’s domestic policies. Worse, it has morphed into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), whose stated ambition is to create a new Islamic state, absorbing parts of Syria and Iraq. As the past few days have amply demonstrated, ISIS is already more than capable of taking territory and governing.

Keep reading.

Sports Illustrated Honors World Cup with Body Painted Babes

Via Theo Spark.

U.S. Spy Agencies Heard #Benghazi Attackers Using State Department Phones to Call Their Commanders During the Attack

This is interesting. Freaky even.

From Bryan Preston, at Pajamas Media.

The War #Obama Once Called 'Dumb' Looms Large Again

At the Washington Post, "For Obama, Iraq looms large again":

President Obama inherited two wars on taking office, one he called “dumb” to his political benefit and the other he described more urgently as “the war we need to win.”

It is the dumb one today that poses the most immediate challenge to his national security priorities and to his foreign policy legacy.  Iraq is splintering, and with it both the original neo-conservative belief that a sectarian dictatorship could be made quickly into a stable democracy and Obama’s hands-off approach to the wider region.

The Islamist insurgents now seizing cities across Iraq’s battered north grew up in Syria, whose civil war Obama has steadfastly avoided despite the grave risks it poses to the region’s delicate stability.

Those threats of a wider regional war have been given shape. In recent days, armed Islamists spanning the Syrian border have seized Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and a string of Sunni Muslim towns, long estranged from the Shiite-led central government, that run south to the edge of Baghdad. Turkey and Iran may intervene to protect their political and security interests, and Iraq’s Kurds have moved into the long-contested city of Kirkuk, which was abandoned by the Iraqi army.

Now a president elected to end the United States’ wars faces demands, in Washington and in Baghdad, to rejoin the one he long condemned and had thought was over. The expected line of his presidential legacy — Obama as the commander in chief who brought to a close the nation’s post-Sept. 11, 2001, conflicts — is threatened now to include an asterisk...

Well, O's gonna have an asterisk alright, indicating how his presidency was the worst administration in generations, one whose legacy will be the biggest repudiation of far-left ideology since the Johnson administration's failed "war on poverty" and Jimmy Carter's years of "malaise."

See also Pamela Geller, "Obama: 'The World Is Less Violent Than It Has Ever Been."

The Incredible Shrinking President

From Walter Russell Mead, at the New York Daily News:

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Less than two years after voters gave President Barack Obama a strong mandate for a second term, the White House is struggling against perceptions that it is losing its grip.

At home, the bungled rollout of the Obamacare website and the shocking revelations about an entrenched culture of incompetence and fraud in the VA have undercut faith in the President’s managerial competency.

Abroad, a surging Russia, an aggressive China, a war torn Middle East and a resurgent terror network are putting his foreign policy credentials to the test. With the GOP hoping to seize control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections, and the inevitable decline in presidential power that occurs as second term presidents move toward lame-duck status, Obama risks being sidelined and marginalized for the remaining two years of his term.

Last week’s tempest over the Bergdahl exchange seemed to roll all the President’s troubles together into a single storm. The decision to free five Taliban fighters from Guantanamo in exchange for an American soldier with a complicated past energized the President’s opponents, befuddled and angered important Congressional allies, and renewed questions about the political instincts of the President and his closest aides. The White House apparently thought that the release would be a moment of national unity and celebration and arranged for Sgt. Bergdahl’s parents to meet Obama in a highly publicized Rose Garden ceremony that now looks like a huge political blunder...

Keep reading.

Obama Weighs Direct Action Against Insurgents in #Iraq

Well, good thing.

At the Los Angeles Times:

Facing the threat of sectarian conflict engulfing the Middle East, President Obama indicated Thursday that he may order direct military action in Iraq, a step he has ruled out since the U.S. ended its long war there.

A number of former administration officials and private analysts have been urging drone or airstrikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an Al Qaeda-inspired militant group whose fighters were sweeping toward Baghdad. In an Oval Office appearance, Obama said the militants' gains indicate "Iraq's going to need more help" from the United States and other nations.

Asked whether he would consider airstrikes, Obama said "I don't rule out anything," adding that in the continuing U.S. collaboration with the Iraqi government "there will be some short-term immediate things that need to be done militarily."

I don't think he'll make the call.

More, in any case.

Obama's Iraq

From Max Boot, at the Weekly Standard, "Mosul Has Fallen, and al Qaeda Is on the March Towards Baghdad":

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has long been hard for the central government to control because of its combustible mix of Arabs and Kurds. The first time I visited Mosul was in August 2003 when a tenuous calm was maintained by the 101st Airborne Division. Its commander, a then-obscure two-star general named David Petraeus, had on his own initiative opened the Syrian border to trade, struck deals with Syria and Turkey to provide badly needed electricity, restored telephone service, and held elections to elect local leaders. Along the way he also managed to kill Saddam Hussein’s poisonous offspring Uday and Qusay.

This kept militants at bay, but they returned with a vengeance after the 101st pulled out in 2004, to be replaced by a smaller American unit whose officers were less attuned to the demands of civic action. Mosul became a hotbed of Saddamist and Islamist militants, as I saw for myself in February 2008 when, during another visit, the U.S. Army convoy in which I was riding was hit by a “complex ambush”: The Humvee in front of mine hit a bomb concealed in a big puddle, and insurgents opened machine gun fire from the left. Luckily no one in our unit was hurt, but a bystander had his arm sliced off by a flying piece of the Humvee’s engine.

Mosul was the last major city to be pacified by the successful “surge.” It took until at least 2010 before it was secure. But now that achievement has been undone. Black-clad fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as Al Qaeda in Iraq has rebranded itself, stormed into Mosul last week and seized control. Dispirited Iraqi soldiers ran away rather than fight. Many were so eager to escape that their discarded uniforms littered the streets. ISIS freed more than 2,000 of its fighters from prisons and seized copious stocks of money, ammunition, and weapons—many of the latter provided by the United States to Iraqi forces.

This was only the latest and most alarming advance for this extremist group, which has risen out of its grave to display dismaying strength in recent years. In January, ISIS seized Fallujah and holds it still—a loss that, like Mosul, is particularly painful to American veterans who sacrificed so much to wrest control of those cities from militants. Following up on their success in Mosul, ISIS fighters advanced south to seize, at least temporarily, Tikrit, Saddam -Hussein’s hometown, and Baiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery, which supplies Baghdad with much of its electricity. Their next targets are certain to be Baqubah and Baghdad. In the capital, ISIS has already inflicted devastating casualties with a series of car bombings. Iraq Body Count calculates that some 9,500 people were killed in Iraq last year, the highest total since 2008. Worse is surely yet to come as Shiite militant organizations such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Kataib Hezbollah respond to Sunni atrocities with atrocities of their own. 

This is not just a problem for Iraq. ISIS, as the name implies, has spread across the border into Syria, where it has been showing increasing strength amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war, in no small part because the United States has done so little to aid the non-jihadist opposition to Bashar al-Assad. ISIS is well on its way to carving out a fundamentalist caliphate that stretches from Aleppo in northern Syria to Mosul in northern Iraq. The post-World War I borders of the Middle East seem to be unraveling. Syria is being split into two entities, one controlled by Sunni Islamists, the other by Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds Force and their Alawite proxies. Iraq is being split into three, with a prosperous and stable Kurdish state, a fundamentalist Sunni Triangle state controlled by ISIS, and the Shiite portions of the country under the sway of militants backed by Iran. Iran is directly involved in the fighting in both countries: It has already sent Quds Force troops to Syria and now reportedly to Iraq as well. The only thing that remains to be determined is whether Shiite or Sunni extremists will control the capital—the new battle for Baghdad, which has already begun, is likely to be even bloodier than the previous installment from 2003 to 2008.

It is hard to exaggerate how much of a disaster this is, not only for Syria and Iraq and their neighbors, but for the United States...

 More.

While #Iraq Falls to al Qaeda, Obama is Off to Fundraise and Play Golf in Palm Springs

From Marooned in Marin:

While the al-Qaeda-linked ISIS is closing in on Baghdad and the Middle East falls into chaos and flames, it appears this crisis won't stop Richard Milhous Obama from two of his favorite pastimes...fundraising for the Party of Treason (Democrats) and a few rounds of golf in Palm Springs, CA (The Press Enterprise).

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama land at Palm Springs International Airport just after 6 p.m. Friday, straight from a visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

At 8:25 a.m. Saturday, they’ll jump over to Laguna Beach for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser, followed by the commencement address to UC Irvine’s Class of 2014 at Angel Stadium.

The Obamas will return to the desert by about 2:10 p.m. Saturday, staying for Father’s Day, before flying home to Washington, D.C., about 10 a.m. Monday.

It’s unclear if their daughters, Malia and Sasha, will tag along. What is Obama’s plan here in the Coachella Valley? Presumably a short vacation, and likely a round of golf or two – though the details remain fuzzy...

More.

Americans Being Evacuated from Iraqi Airbase as Militants Advance

At Weasel Zippers.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

From Michael Koziol, at the Sydney Morning Herald, "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi shows why he's the world's most dangerous man":

Baghdadi was an AQI commander who evaded US capture in Iraq and later moved into Syria. There has been a $US10 million bounty on his head since 2011, and Time magazine labelled him "the world's most dangerous man".

ISIL fighters are a major component of the rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. The Economist has described the group as "one of the best-equipped and funded militias on the ground", with perhaps 7000 fighters.

It is a hardline, Sunni Muslim militia that kills civilians without much care. Its brutality has alienated ISIL from other rebels fighting the Assad regime. It seeks a single Islamic state under sharia, not just in Syria but across the Levant and in Iraq. On Tuesday it conquered Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city of almost 2 million, which stands about 114 kilometres from the Syrian border in the north of Iraq.

More.

And at Flopping Aces, "ISIS Terror Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Was Released by Obama From Camp Bucca in 2009."

Squandered Sacrifice in #Iraq

At Instapundit, "Veterans Watch as Iraq Teeters on the Brink."

Fresno Man Killed Within Hours of Being Mistakenly Freed from Incarceration

I read about the man's release last night, and now here's this. Pretty freakin' bizarre.

At the Fresno Bee, "Fresno felon slain minutes after jail release on jury's mistake; suspect arrested."

#ISIS Threatens to Invade Jordan, 'Slaughter' King Abdullah

Well, Jordan's a key piece of the Levant, so it makes sense.

At Blazing Cat Fur:

The recent victories in Iraq and Syria by the terrorists of ISIS -- said to be an offshoot of al-Qaeda -- have emboldened the group and its followers throughout the Middle East. Now the terrorists are planning to move their jihad not only to Jordan, but also to the Gaza Strip, Sinai and Lebanon...

#Iraq Girds as #ISIS Incursion Pushes on Baghdad

The battle is nigh.

At WSJ, "Iraq Girds to Defend Capital Baghdad: Move Comes as Forces of the Shiite-Dominated Government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Abandon Posts and Flee, Provincial Official Says":

Iraq's government girded to protect the capital from advancing insurgents, as Iranian security officials said their forces had joined the battle on Baghdad's side and the U.S. weighed military assistance, including airstrikes.  Iraq edged closer to all-out sectarian conflict as Kurdish forces took control of a provincial capital in the oil-rich north on Thursday and Sunni militants threatened to march on two cities revered by Shiite Muslims and the capital.

"What we have seen over the last couple of days indicates the degree to which Iraq is going to need more help—more help from us and more help from the international community," President Barack Obama said from the Oval Office. "My team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them," he added. "I don't rule out anything."

The deteriorating situation in Iraq—a key global oil supplier—reverberated through financial markets Thursday, sending oil prices sharply higher, pushing U.S. stocks lower and igniting the latest rally in safe-haven bonds.

Faced with the threat of Sunni extremists eclipsing the power of Iraq's Shiite-dominated rulers, Shiite Iran sprang into action to aid its besieged Arab ally. It deployed Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq, Iranian security sources said. At least three battalions of the Quds Forces, the overseas branch of the Guards, were dispatched, the security sources said.

Some U.S. military officials cast doubt on the report that battalions of Iranian Quds Forces had deployed to Iraq, saying only militias controlled by or allied with Iran have been mobilized to fight alongside Iraqi forces.  One Revolutionary Guards unit that was already in Iraq fought alongside the Iraqi army against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an offshoot of al Qaeda rapidly gaining territory across Iraq, the security sources said.

They offered guerrilla-warfare advice and tactics and helped to reclaim most of the city of Tikrit on Thursday, the security sources said. Two units, dispatched from Iran's western border provinces on Wednesday, were tasked with protecting Baghdad and the holy Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf, they said.

Gen. Qasem Sulaimani, the commander of the Quds Forces and one of the region's most powerful military figures, traveled to Baghdad this week to help manage the swelling crisis, said a member of the Revolutionary Guards.

With Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government proving incapable of containing the widening strife, Iraq's mosaic of ethnic and religious groups has become combustible, as each is forced to take steps to defend its security. The prime minister's office has not responded to repeated requests for comment...

More.

And see London's Daily Mail, "ISIS butchers leave 'roads lined with decapitated police and soldiers': Battle for Baghdad looms as thousands answer Iraqi government's call to arms and jihadists bear down on capital."

America's Legacy in Iraq

From Dexter Filkins, at the New Yorker, "In Extremists' Iraq Rise, America's Legacy":

When the Americans invaded, in March, 2003, they destroyed the Iraqi state—its military, its bureaucracy, its police force, and most everything else that might hold a country together. They spent the next nine years trying to build a state to replace the one they crushed. By 2011, by any reasonable measure, the Americans had made a lot of headway but were not finished with the job. For many months, the Obama and Maliki governments talked about keeping a residual force of American troops in Iraq, who would act largely to train Iraq’s Army and to provide intelligence against Sunni insurgents. (They would almost certainly have been barred from fighting.) Those were important reasons to stay, but the most important went largely unstated: it was to continue to act as a restraint on Maliki’s sectarian impulses, at least until the Iraqi political system was strong enough to contain him on its own. The negotiations between Obama and Maliki fell apart, in no small measure because of a lack of engagement by the White House. Today, many Iraqis, including some close to Maliki, say that a small force of American soldiers—working in non-combat roles—would have provided a crucial stabilizing factor that is now missing from Iraq. Sami al-Askari, a Maliki confidant, told me for my article this spring, “If you had a few hundred here, not even a few thousand, they would be coöperating with you, and they would become your partners.” President Obama wanted the Americans to come home, and Maliki didn’t particularly want them to stay.

The trouble is, as the events of this week show, what the Americans left behind was an Iraqi state that was not able to stand on its own. What we built is now coming apart. This is the real legacy of America’s war in Iraq.

Extremely perceptive piece. Be sure to RTWT.

And notice how Filkins, implicitly, just demolishes the idiot LGM ghoul Robert Farley, who claimed that a U.S. residual force would have been helpless in tamping down the return of civil war in Iraq.

Filkins is the author of The Forever War.

Leftists Spew 'Tolerant' Sexist Misogyny as Dana Loesch Releases 'Hands Off My Gun' Book Cover

Check Dana's Twitter timeline for some of the disgusting attacks, here and here, example.

But see Twitchy, "‘Can’t wait for this one’! Dana Loesch reveals cover of upcoming book [pic]."

Senator John McCain Slams Obama's Foreign Policy Team

From Molly Wharton, at National Review, "McCain: Obama Needs a New National-Security Team."



And from Jim Geraghty, "The Coming ‘There’s Nothing We Could Have Done’ Excuses."

Joanna May Parker in Black Lingerie

Some afternoon babe blogging delight, via Egotastic!, "Joanna May Parker Black Lingerie Striptease for the Discreet Gentleman Ogler."

I like that "discreet gentleman"part, heh.

Twitter's COO Ali Rowghani Resigns After Dispute with Chief Executive Dick Costolo

Some business news, for a change of pace.

At WSJ, "Twitter's No. 2 Executive Resigns After Dispute With CEO: Ali Rowghani Departs After CEO Costolo Sought to Run Product Team Amid Slowing User Growth."

Goodbye Twitter. It's been an amazing ride, and I will cherish the memories.

— Ali Rowghani (@ROWGHANI) June 12, 2014

More at Techmeme, "Twitter COO Steps Down From Job on Twitter, But Stays as Strategic Advisor."

Hillary Clinton Gets Angry During NPR Exchange on Gay Marriage

More please, moar!

At Politico, "Hillary Clinton gets testy over gay marriage."

And from NPR, "Hillary Clinton: The Fresh Air Interview."

The audio's here, "Hillary Clinton Snaps at NPR Host After Defensive Gay Marriage Interview."

"I think you are very persistent but you are playing with my words."

Yeah, right.

And at BuzzFeed, "10 Times NPR's Terry Gross Tries to Get Hillary Clinton to Explain When She First Supported Marriage Equality."

PREVIOUSLY: "Hillary Clinton's 'Favorability' Collapsing Amid Lies and Chaos."

Traitor Bowe #Bergdahl Set to Return to the United States

At CNN, "Bowe Bergdahl returning to U.S. for more treatment after release."

Laura Ingraham Helped Propel Dave Brat's Campaign — #VA07

Laura Ingraham slams sham tea party "patriot" Jenny Beth Martin at the clip below.

And boy, Ingraham really racked up the creds with this insurgent win out of Virginia's 7th congressional district.

Even the far-left New York Times pumped and praised her impact on the race, "Potent Voices of Conservative Media Propelled Cantor Opponent: David Brat Was Aided by Influential Figures Like Laura Ingraham":

If Eric Cantor needed evidence that his political career was in real trouble, all he had to do was look outside his living room window one night last week. At a stately country club about half a mile from his home in the affluent Richmond suburb of Glen Allen, so many people had come to see the radio talk show host Laura Ingraham stump for Mr. Cantor’s opponent in the Republican primary, David Brat, that the overflow parking nearly reached his driveway.

Ms. Ingraham was so taken aback at the size of the crowd — inside the clubhouse, hundreds of people crammed onto staircase landings, leaned over railings and peered down at her from above — she wondered aloud what was really going on.

“We all looked at each other, saying, ‘He could totally win,'” Ms. Ingraham said in an interview. “I’ve had two moments in American politics in the last 15 years where I knew there was a big change afoot. One was when I left the Iowa caucuses in 2008. I walked out of there and said to a friend, ‘Barack Obama is going to win.’ And the other was when I left that rally last Tuesday.”

Few people did more than Ms. Ingraham to propel Mr. Brat, a 49-year-old economics professor who has never held elected office before, from obscurity to national conservative hero. And few stories better illustrate how his out-of-nowhere victory was due in large part to a unique and potent alignment of influential voices in conservative media.

Crucially, voices like Ms. Ingraham’s combined with shoe-leather, grass-roots campaign work by a highly organized local conservative movement to fill a void left by the absence of support from national Tea Party organizations and boldface Republican Party names.

Mr. Brat may have been turned away when he asked for financial support from well-funded conservative groups, and he was largely ignored by the national and local news media, which considered Mr. Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, a shoo-in. But he was a known quantity to the loyal audiences of radio personalities like Ms. Ingraham and Mark Levin, a Reagan aide and a revered figure in the conservative movement, and Breitbart.com, the website founded by the provocateur Andrew Breitbart.

Together, Mr. Levin and Ms. Ingraham reach nearly 10 million people each week. And the Breitbart sites log 60 million page views each month. Those audiences are heavy with engaged, politically motivated voters who turn out in Republican primaries — the kind of voters who came out for Mr. Brat on Tuesday.  “Of the 70,000 voters yesterday in Virginia, I am sure 95 percent go to Drudge, Breitbart, Mark Levin or Laura Ingraham every day, multiple times a day,” said Stephen K. Bannon, who wears many hats as a radio host, a filmmaker and the executive chairman of Breitbart.

More.

FLASHBACK: "Jenny Beth Martin Makes More the $450,000 Annually as National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots!"

#Obama Regime Knew About Secret #VeteransAdministration Wait Lists for Years

Of course they knew. It's all lies with this White House, and they simply do not care.

At the Daily Caller, "Obama Administration Knew About VA's Secret Wait Lists for Years."

Joseph Biden in 2010: #Iraq Will Be 'One of the Great Achievements' of Obama Administration

Via Breitbart.

And Twitchy, "‘Oh, man’: This Biden flashback on Iraq is nothing short of ‘brutal’ [video]."

Oh, man. This clip. https://t.co/yTVKFiEQrt

— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) June 12, 2014

Ironically, had the administration gotten a SOFA, it would have been one of their greatest achievements. Now, they've just squandered everything, put the U.S. and all of our allies in danger, because "the tide of war is receding" bullshit.

Chaos in #Brazil at World Cup Soccer

At U.S. News and World Report, "Brazilian Protesters Draw Harsh Penalties Before World Cup Opener." And Huffington Post UK, "World Cup 2014: Violent Clashes In Sao Paulo Mar Tournament Opening."



More at the Atlantic, "'There Will Be No World Cup': What's at Stake in Brazil."

WaPo Leftist David Ignatius Blasts Obama's Foreign Policy

Ignatius is the classic "liberal" foreign policy pundit and he just blasts the White House as completely out of touch while the world burns.

He begins by giving a shout out to Daniel Henninger's piece today at WSJ, "While Obama Fiddles."

But listen to Ignatius.

Hillary Clinton's 'Favorability' Collapsing Amid Lies and Chaos

Her ratings are now lower than they were in 2008, when she first ran for president.

At Gallup, "Smaller Majority of Americans View Hillary Clinton Favorably":

The latest findings come from a Gallup poll conducted June 5-8. Though Clinton has said she will not announce whether she'll run for president until at least later this year, her latest book has been widely framed as a preamble to another presidential bid and a move typical of White House hopefuls.

Clinton already has the support of many elected officials and Democratic Party representatives if she chooses to run. Americans have named her their Most Admired Woman 18 times. Clinton's current favorability rating is the lowest it has been since August 2008 (54%), when she was preparing to deliver a speech at the Democratic National Convention endorsing then-Sen. Barack Obama, who defeated her in a hard-fought primary battle for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.

Clinton enjoyed quite favorable ratings for some time, but her public support is flailing right along with the Democrat Party brand. That's the trend to watch going into November and 2016. Americans will grow increasingly tired of the lies and the Democrat anti-Americanism they see right on the White House lawn. It's shocking. But the public's awakening.

Added: From Louise Mensch, "Don’t Look Now, But Hillary’s Numbers Are Sliding."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Deployed Against ISIS Forces in #Iraq

The Wall Street Journal's been amping up the Iraq coverage, seen at my tweet below.

And here's more at WSJ, linked through Blazing Cat Fur, "Iran Deploys Forces to Fight al Qaeda-Inspired Militants in Iraq: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Forces Helped Iraqi Troops Win Back Control of Most of Tikrit, the Sources Said":

Dramatic front-page coverage at today's @WSJ. pic.twitter.com/9objueoBqE

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 12, 2014

BEIRUT, Lebanon—Iran has deployed Revolutionary Guard forces to fight al Qaeda-inspired militants that have overrun a string of Iraqi cities, and it has helped Iraqi troops win back control of most of Tikrit, Iranian security sources said.

Two battalions of the Quds Forces, the elite overseas branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps that have long operated in Iraq, have come to the aid of the besieged, Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, they said.

Combined Iraqi-Iranian forces had retaken control across 85% of Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi and Iranian security sources.

They were helping guard the capital Baghdad and the two cities of Najaf and Karbala, which have been targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot whose lightning offensive has thrown Iraq into its worse turmoil since the sectarian fighting that followed the 2003 U.S. invasion of the country.

Tehran has also positioned troops along its border with Iraq and promised to bomb rebel forces if they close within 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, from Iran's border, according to an Iranian army general.  In addition, it was considering the transfer to Iraq of Iranian troops in Syria, if the initial deployments fail to turn the tide of battle in favor of Mr. Maliki's government.

The Iraqi government has asked the U.S. to carry out airstrikes and to speed up the delivery of promised weapons, which raises the prospect of both the U.S. and Iran lending support to Mr. Maliki against ISIS insurgents, who are seeking to create a caliphate encompassing Iraqi and Syrian territory.

General Qasim Sulaimani, the commander of the Quds Forces and one of the region's most powerful military figures, traveled to Baghdad this week to help manage the swelling crisis, said a member of the Revolutionary Guards, or IRGC.

Qassimm al-Araji, and Iraqi Shiite lawmaker who heads the Badr Brigade block in the country's parliament, posted a picture of him and Mr. Sulaimani holding hands in a room in Baghdad on his social-networking site with the caption, "Haj Qasem is here," reported Iranian news sites affiliated with the IRGC on Wednesday. "Haj Qasem" is Mr. Sulaimani's nom de guerre.

At stake for Iran in the current tumult in Iraq isn't only the survival of an Shiite political ally in Baghdad, but the safety of Karbala and Najaf, which along with Mecca and Medina are considered sacred to Shiites world-wide.

An ISIS spokesman, Abu Mohamad al-Adnani, urged the group's Sunni fighters to march toward the "filfth -ridden" Karbala and "the city of polytheism" Najaf, where they would "settle their differences" with Mr. Maliki.

More.

Iraq Update: Widespread Executions as ISIS Pushes on Baghdad; Retreat in Mosul After Iraqi Air Force Assault; Kurds Retake Kirkuk

I'm getting caught up on the news.

See London's Daily Mail, "The battle for Baghdad is nigh: Thousands of men answer Iraqi government's call to arms as ISIS jihadists bear down on capital."

At Telegraph UK, "Iraq crisis: al-Qaeda militants push towards Baghdad in sight - live."

And the BBC, "Iraq delays vote on emergency as crisis spreads." This morning's viral summary execution below at 1:25 minutes:



More at Al Alam, "Iraqi air force bombs militants positions in Mosul: TV." And Jawa Report, "War Porn: Iraqis Strike ISIS Convoy."

Also, at Bloomberg, "Iraq Battles Islamists in Saddam’s Hometown, 80 Miles From Baghdad."

More at the Clarion Project, "UPDATE: ISIS Marches on Baghdad With No Visible Opposition."

And Bill Roggio, at Long War Journal, "ISIS' advance halted at Samarra."

Over at the Wall Street Journal, "Kurdish Forces Take Control in Northern Iraqi City of Kirkuk: Move Comes as Forces of the Shiite-Dominated Government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Abandon Posts and Flee, Provincial Official Says." And Guardian UK, "Iraqi Kurdish forces take Kirkuk as Isis sets its sights on Baghdad."

From Eli Lake, at the Daily Beast, "Iraq’s Terrorists Are Becoming a Full-Blown Army."

And at the New York Times, "Where ISIS Is Gaining Control in Iraq and Syria."

Expect updates throughout the day.