Back in January, President Barack Obama was quoted as saying this when referring to the need to be concerned about ISIS:‘The analogy we use around here sometimes and is accurate is if a JV team puts on Laker uniforms, that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. Prompting this response from Cnn's Jake Tapper. How badly did resident Obama underestimate it, the threat of ISIS?” Isis began as an off shoot of Alqaeda in Iraq(AQI) in 2006. AQI was essentially part of the Sunni insurgency. Most of these terrorists came from other nations and their activities were separate from the Iraqi Sunnis. Their terrorist activities aimed at getting the Sunnis and the Shiites into a civil war. In 2007, Due to the U.S. surge and cooperation from Iraqi Sunnis who turned and help us fight the terrorists, relative peace was brought to Iraq. When the civil war broke out in Syria they took advantage of it. They formed a militia and were able to take over many cities in Syria, which they still hold. In June, after Barack Obama downplayed their threat, they began to sweep through many cities in Iraq and have even threatened Bagdad. When they first started to sweep through in June, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Maliki, asked the U.S. for Air support. Barack Obama said the U.S. would not be getting involved unless Iraq solved its political problems and were fair to the Sunnis. "So this should be a wake-up call. Iraq’s leaders have to demonstrate a willingness to make hard decisions and compromises on behalf of the Iraqi people in order to bring the country together. In that effort, they will have the support of the United States and our friends and our allies." ~ Barack Obama http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/13/statement-president-iraq Fox News Broadcast from 5 months before ISIS invaded Iraq | Meanwhile, these terrorist are rampaging through cities of Iraq, massacring Christians in Iraq and causing them to flee. They have also attacked the Kurds, who occupy the North east region of Iraq. The Kurds have been our allies and have been largely independent and not involved in any sectarian violence that has occurred in Iraq since the Iraq war began in 2003. Many of them are not even Muslim. They have been forced to flee to the mountains where they face starvation, dehydration and the elements. On August 8th President Obama agreed to give humanitarian supplies to the Kurds trapped in the mountains and also conduct air strikes against ISIS forces. It was later reported that we would also supply arms to the Kurds but that the arms would have to be distributed to the Kurds by the Iraqi central government. There was some doubt as to whether this would ever occur and some pundits said we should be concerned about these weapons falling into the hands of ISIS if we arm the Kurds. Now the administration has agreed to arm the Kurds directly As of August 10, it has been reported that 6,000 Iraqi civillians have been killed by ISIS and 40,000 Yazidis, a religious minority, have been forced to flee their homes out of fear of execution by ISIS. |