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posted by
n1
on Monday September 29 2014, @03:13PM
from the wasn't-looking,-too-busy-listening dept.
from the wasn't-looking,-too-busy-listening dept.
Time reports on statements made by President Obama during an interview:
When asked about comments by the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has said the U.S. overestimated the ability and will of the Iraqi military to fight the extremist group, Obama said, “That’s true,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s absolutely true.”
Obama had already admitted that the rise of ISIS took the U.S. by surprise. “I think that there is no doubt that their advance, their movement over the last several months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates and I think the expectations of policymakers both in and outside of Iraq,”
Statement by the President on Iraq: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/09/statement-president-iraq
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Obama Admits U.S. Intelligence Didn’t See ISIS Coming
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Now KEN and BARBIE are PERMANENTLY ADDICTED to MIND-ALTERING DRUGS ...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tathra on Monday September 29 2014, @06:10PM
maybe not at the moment, but we supplied, funded, and trained the taliban, and specifically osama bin laden, too. everything we gave to the taliban was used against us by al qaeda; while they're not the same group, they shared a lot of resources, at least leading up to our liberation of afghanistan*. i'm not sure if we supplied and trained ISIS specifically (there were suggestions to), but at any rate we have a concrete example that training and supplying "moderate" rebel groups can come back to bite us in the ass. i dont really feel like digging for the sources at the moment, but US intelligence knew that foreigners were planning to fly planes into buildings as an attack 6 months before it actually happened, and they did nothing to stop it; chances are, especially now that the government has gone completely rogue, that some people would be counting on some of those groups we supply and train to threaten the US, to use to their political advantage. if ISIS is being used to push unconstitutional actions and furthering the police state, then it is a very big threat to the US.
regarding your point 3, "disconnect... from the support of the locals", thats the exact message in the counter-insurgency training manuals that are handed out before any US soldiers go overseas, and it sums up to "hearts and minds"; i still try to fight to support that concept, but too many people, civilians and soldiers alike, mock the idea and just want an excuse to kill people.
* i'm using my own experiences with civilian population here, not the propaganda. when civilians regularly come up to you to say "thank you" (and not as a probe in order to attack), thats a liberation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 29 2014, @08:02PM
> but at any rate we have a concrete example that training and supplying "moderate" rebel groups can come back to bite us in the ass.
I don't see how you get from the US giving rocket launchers to the Taliban to a handful of university students using boxcutters to take over a couple of airplanes.
Sure, after we decided to invade afghanistan we ended up facing what weapons had survived the ~20 intervening years, but if we hadn't decided to invade we never would have ended up on the wrong end of those weapons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 30 2014, @05:43AM
ISIS isn't a big threat to the US.
maybe not at the moment, but we supplied, funded, and trained the taliban, and specifically osama bin laden, too. everything we gave to the taliban was used against us by al qaeda;
Summary: the USA is the greatest threat to the USA.