KICKED FROM BEHIND

Emmett Tyrrell


WASHINGTON -- Aha, Mr. Obama, how do you
now like "leading from behind"?
When you first enunciated this hocus-pocus
in 2011, Charles Krauthammer called it
neither a theory nor a doctrine. He called it
"dithering," a style devoid of ideas. Instead of
the implementation of a doctrine, we have
seen indecision, hesitancy, delay. In the
aftermath of that delay, it is too late to
prevent the carnage, a carnage that did not
have to take place. Iraq was stable and
relatively peaceful before we led from
behind. Now the country is quite possibly
lost. Cartographers will be presenting the
world with a new map of the area once it has
been carved up.
One would think that President Barack
Obama has been sweating profusely of late.
Possibly he is in his meetings with the
National Security Council, assuming he meets
with the group. We know he is flying off to
Indian reservations to focus Americans on
the plight of Native Americans. He did this on
Friday, and he is attending fundraisers.
Perhaps he will attempt to focus our attention
on the plight of American gypsies next. How
about a fundraiser for American gypsies?
There he could present his sleek and cool
image. No sweat, all is well. Yet back in
Baghdad, American diplomats are looking
skyward for the helicopters. It might be
Saigon circa 1975 all over again.
Why when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
pounced last week, were there no American
troops in Iraq? In 2011, we were supposedly
hammering out a status of forces agreement
to keep a residual force of 23,000 troops
there. We have done this after World War II,
the Korean War and other conflicts.
Unfortunately, the hammering out of the
agreement ended in bickering and foot
stomping. For one thing, the stupendously
disagreeable Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-
Maliki, insisted on having criminal
jurisdiction over American forces in Iraq.
Rather than negotiate, Obama did what he
had already promised to do. He called
American forces home. Now we see the
outcome. After a decade of American
involvement in Iraq and 4,500 Americans
dead, a handful of terrorists -- ISIS numbers
only in the thousands -- are acting like a
conquering army and taking whole
provinces. The Iraqi army is stripping off its
uniforms to reveal casual dress and trying to
blend in with the local citizenry. Not
surprisingly, those who are captured in their
casual dress are being slaughtered.
Two men are responsible for this disaster,
President Obama and Prime Minister Maliki.
Standing together in the White House in a
December 2011 ceremony, the president
made good on his promise. We were leaving
Iraq. Prime Minister Maliki was triumphal.
He had no worries. Iraq was a happy
sovereign state under his leadership. Of
course, in the months ahead he reneged on all
his promises to share power with the Sunnis
and the Kurds. The result of these two foolish
men's dithering, and in Maliki's case, evading
his responsibilities to the Kurds and the
Sunnis, we are seeing today.
Retired General John M. Keane explained
brilliantly to the Washington Times on
Monday what has allowed a small force of
well-equipped terrorists to invest Iraq this
week: Up until late in 2011, "We had all our
intelligence capability there. We knew where
the enemy was. We were flying drones.
We're tracking them. We have signals
intelligence pouring in, eavesdropping on
phone conversations and the rest of it. We're
using our counter-terrorism forces to bang
against these guys. We're passing that
information to the Iraqis so their commandos
can do the same." Keane expounded, "On a
given day ... that screen went blank."
President Obama led from behind.
Tuesday, in the Wall Street Journal, General
Keane spoke out again. It is not too late to
stop ISIS from becoming a conquering army.
He counsels bringing in "intelligence
architecture" to turn on the intelligence
screens that, of a sudden, went blank in Iraq
in 2011. Send in "planners and advisors" who
will advise "down to division level where
units are still viable." Strike with "counter-
terrorism" because "Special operations forces
should be employed clandestinely to attack
high value ISIS targets," ISIS leaders. Finally
General Keane advises using "air power,"
which "alone cannot win a war" but can
make it nigh unto impossible for ISIS
members to stick their heads out of the sand.
General Keane is my kind of general. He is
full of fight and has a strategic plan. Our
problem is the guy in the White House.