How Obama Failed to Anticipate and Respond to ISIS: Review of Michael Gordon’s “Degrade and Destroy”

[rangerrebew]

How Obama Failed to Anticipate and Respond to ISIS: Review of Michael Gordon’s “Degrade and Destroy”
By Garrett Exner on November 15, 2024
 
In 2016 Robert Ford, U.S. Ambassador to Syria from 2011-2014, said the Obama Administration held a “myopic view of ISIS.” In his book, Degrade and Destroy (2022), Michael Gordon goes further, exposing just how persistent the myopathy around ISIS and counterterrorism was under Obama’s leadership. And with the same cast of characters back at the helm under Biden, it’s no wonder why chaos has once again enveloped the Middle East. Besides Gordon’s fascinating history of the American policy failures that contributed to the rise of ISIS, his book also provides insightful guidance for an impending second Trump Administration, describing important lessons that can be gleaned from the Obama-Biden team’s mistakes.

Gordon’s thorough accounting begins with the initial failure to counter ISIS in 2012, followed by a desire to minimize and obfuscate the magnitude of the threat through 2013 and 2014. As Obama’s second term went on, the genesis of ISIS revealed an absence of any coherent foreign policy strategy in conjunction with the suffocating micromanagement of the military by Obama and his staff. Of note, nearly all of Obama’s advisors described in the book returned under Biden, having been promoted to new heights in response to their failures.

The misadventure continues with the botched withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2013, overseen by then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-commander of U.S. Central Command and later Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. On the heels of the troop withdrawal, Biden and his longtime aide, Antony Blinken, assured the White House that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was a reliable ally who would steward Iraq post-U.S. involvement. Maliki, a Shia, instead inflamed sectarian violence, thus swelling the ranks of ISIS with Sunni fighters while allowing rampant corruption to rot an Iraqi military the U.S. spent billions creating.

https://providencemag.com/2024/11/how-obama-failed-to-anticipate-and-respond-to-isis-review-of-michael-gordons-degrade-and-destroy-1/

[Hoodat]

His failure was his response.  It was intentional.

[SZonian]

Uhm, the POS left little doubt who were his friends...

OBAMA QUOTES ON ISLAM

1. “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

2. “The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer.”

3. “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

4. “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.”

5. “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.”

6. “Islam has always been part of America.”

7. “We will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities.”

8. “These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

9. “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

10. “I made clear that America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam.”

11. “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism — it is an important part of promoting peace.”

12. “So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed.”

13. “In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.”

14. “Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

15. “Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality.”

16. “The Holy Koran tells us, ‘O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.’”

17. “I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.”

18. “We’ve seen those results in generations of Muslim immigrants — farmers and factory workers, helping to lay the railroads and build our cities, the Muslim innovators who helped build some of our highest skyscrapers and who helped unlock the secrets of our universe.”

19. “That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

20. “I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.”