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Raymond Ibrahim: How Obama’s Arab Spring Created the Islamic State

Oct 6, 2014 2:03 pm By Raymond Ibrahim

obama[Via FrontPage Magazine]

Over a decade ago, the U.S. conquered Iraq; its military and intelligence were on the ground for years with autonomy.   In other words, U.S. influence and authority was more pronounced in Iraq than probably any other Muslim country in the world.

And yet it is in this one Muslim nation, where the U.S. had most authority, where U.S. blood and treasure were spent, that the absolute worst Islamic terrorist group—the Islamic State—was born.

Coincidence?

Or is this too related to the great “Arab Spring” failures of the Obama administration?

Consider: Obama was repeatedly warned that withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq would lead to something exactly like the Islamic State—with all the atrocities that have become synonymous with that name.

Indeed, arguing against early troop withdrawal, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, once made the following now prophetic remarks:

To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States.

It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to Al Qaeda.

It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale.

It would mean we allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan.

It would mean we’d be increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.

The point here is not to “side” with Bush—the idea of transporting “democracy” to an Islamic country was ill-conceived from the start—but rather to demonstrate that Obama was thoroughly warned what troop withdrawal would lead to: the Islamic State.   The same U.S. military and intelligence sources that allowed Bush to make that prescient statement also shared their assessments with Obama.

Yet Obama withdrew anyway.  In December 2011, Obama declared the Iraq war a success and pulled out American troops.  And, to the eyes of most Americans, things were relatively quiet—until, of course, the world heard that a head-chopping, infidel-crucifying, mass-murdering “caliphate” had “suddenly” arisen.

Was Iraq also part of the euphoria of the Obama-endorsed “Arab Spring”?

Recall that final troop withdrawal from Iraq occurred at the height of the Arab Spring when the Obama administration was simultaneously betraying key U.S. allies in the Islamic world such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.

If the U.S. was not going to stand by its former “secular strongmen,” but instead was willing to hold hands with their traditional enemies, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, why should it have supported Iraq’s Nouri Maliki?… Keep reading 

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Iraq, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), United States


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Comments

  1. John C. Barile says

    Oct 6, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    President Obama’s policies in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Iraq are destabilizing and rudderless. No one in these precincts would say otherwise.

  2. mortimer says

    Oct 6, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    Bush’s prophecy of a plunge into chaos following premature American withdrawal was 100% true.

    Obama caused this disaster by his naivety.

    • Transmaster says

      Oct 6, 2014 at 4:32 pm

      So right mortimer, and yet the Sultan of Stupid blames everything on Bush. Typical of a libtard nothing is their fault it is always somebody Else. Like the Jewish Passover, 2000 years from now liberals will celebrate the annual religious holiday called “Blame Bush Day”.

      At the first day of Blame Bush Day the elder liberal reading from the Holy Teleprompter will intone.

      Praise Obama, from whom all blessings flow;
      Praise Him, for all the illegal aliens here to vote;
      Praise Him when you hear him boast
      Praise Obama, for the Arab Spring
      Praise him for the peace is brings.

  3. Rachel says

    Oct 6, 2014 at 10:29 pm

    We should have never been in Iraq in the first place. Republicans are just as bad as muslims with their denial and refusing to take any responsibility for George w bush policy.

    • Western Canadian says

      Oct 7, 2014 at 4:06 pm

      Gee, from correct to utter rubbish in so few words…..

  4. somehistory says

    Oct 7, 2014 at 12:13 am

    The best laid plans of mice seem to be working out. But only temporarily.
    2011 will go down as an historic year, esp to those who read Bible prophecy. Could be this year will be even more historic.

  5. Tim says

    Oct 7, 2014 at 9:54 am

    Mr. Ibrahim, perhaps you can help me witha long term question I have. How, after 14 centuries, are there still so many living Copts in Egypt? Is their number of 8 million not a singular situation in the Islamic world? Aren’t all infidels eventually destroyed or forced out of Islamic enclaves? I’ve never read an explanation about this phenomenon. The only thing I’ve been able to come up with is that Mary the Copt gave bith to Muhammad’s only male child, Ishmael, who subsequently died when he was 18 months old. This somehow then provided the Copts with some sort of limited protection. I don’t know but that’s the only idea I’ve been able to come up with. Can you help?

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 7, 2014 at 10:00 pm

      Oh, good grief—do you seem to think that since Egypt has “only” been able to forcibly convert, drive out, or slaughter *90%* of their Christian population over the centuries that they are some sort of “moderates”?

      A fairly sizable remnant of Christians survived in Turkey—until the Armenian Genocide, anyway.

      Christians and other non-Muslims survive in some parts of Dar-al-Islam—sometimes because they are used as oppressed and exploited milch cows—this was certainly the case in the Ottoman Empire; and sometimes because there are simply too many to kill, even with centuries of concerted effort, as in places like India.

      But Islam *never gives up*. We will likely see the extinction of Christianity in Iraq and Pakistan in our lifetime. Islam is making a final push for dominance in places like Nigeria.

      Christians and other Muslims are increasingly threatened throughout the Muslim world as Islam is resurgent.

  6. gravenimage says

    Oct 7, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    How Obama’s Arab Spring Created the Islamic State
    …………………………..

    With all respect to Mr. Ibrahim, I think this goes a bit too far—Islam had already been resurgent for several decades, fueled by oil money and a “politically correct”, clueless. and supine West.

    But having such an outright appeaser in the White House—and this dates at least from Obama’s appalling Cairo Speech—cannot have helped but to embolden Islam more than ever before.

    So—while I don’t believe that Obama actually created the Islamic State, he has certainly done more than anyone else in the West to enable it.

  7. Anon says

    Oct 9, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    From 2012, “Obama’s Ring Inscription: There is No God But Allah!”

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