The Obama administration doesn't have a plan for dealing with the crisis in Iraq. The left apparently believes it's up to obviously out of power "neocons" to have a plan.
Though he has dispatched 275 military advisors to that country, his virtual ultimatum to that Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — no angel by any stretch, but still a better alternative to a civil war or an ISIS-run terrorist state — that he must negotiate with all parties involve before the U.S. will even think about making a meaningful military commitment seems destined to allow matters to deteriorate further, perhaps to the point of no return. Despite all of this, Donna Cassata and Bradley Klapper at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, implied in a Tuesday afternoon dispatch that anyone who doesn't support plan-free military action now is some kind of hypocrite — except for Democrats who say that their support of going to war in 2002 was a mistake. The AP pair also falsely asserted that weapons of mass destruction "were never found" in Iraq.
To Cassata and Klapper, anyone who has any doubts about supporting the President in whatever he proposes — whatever that ends up being, and assuming there is even a concrete proposal — is now a "dove."
Along the way, the AP pair repeated the flat-out "no WMDs were found" lie (bolds are mine throughout this post; numbered tags are mine):
PROSPECT OF NEW IRAQ FIGHT TURNS HAWKS INTO DOVES
The prospect of the U.S. military returning to the fight in Iraq has turned congressional hawks into doves. [1]
Lawmakers who eagerly voted to authorize military force 12 years ago to oust Saddam Hussein and destroy weapons of mass destruction that were never found [2] now harbor doubts that air strikes will turn back insurgents threatening Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and Baghdad.
Fears of Mideast quagmire and weariness after a decade of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan loom large for even those who talk tough on national security. More than 6,000 Americans died in those wars, which cost a trillion dollars.
As President Barack Obama mulls his next step, there is little unanimity in Congress on what the United States should do [3] despite some Republican voices - most notably Sen. John McCain - loudly calling for air strikes and stepped-up military action. The sectarian violence between the pro-government Shiites and Sunnis adds to congressional uncertainty.
Obama will discuss the situation in Iraq with House and Senate leaders of both parties at the White House Wednesday. State Department and Pentagon officials will hold closed-doors briefings with lawmakers over the next couple of days.
... The Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Obama must offer a strategy and act quickly to provide the Iraqi government with assistance before "every gain made by the U.S. and allied troops is lost." He didn't outline a specific course of action. [4]
[1] — So the new AP Stylebook definition of a "hawk" must be "a person who okays any kind of military action before even thinking about it," while a "dove" is now "anyone who expresses any reservations at all about military actions, even those not supported by a coherent plan."
[2] — Note that Cassata and Klapper are claiming that WMDs were "never found." None. Zero. Nada.
Horse manure.
Plenty of irrefutable proof is here, here and here at my home blog.
Wikileaks documents, purloined by Bradley/Chelsea Manning, considered a folk hero by many on the left, also show that there WMDs in Iraq. How about that?
It gets better. Let's look at the excellent July 2008 Investor's Business Daily editorial on the topic:
Hear about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium found in Iraq? No? Why should you? It doesn't fit the media's neat story line that Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed no nuclear threat when we invaded in 2003.
It's a little known fact that, after invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. found massive amounts of uranium yellowcake, the stuff that can be refined into nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, at a facility in Tuwaitha outside of Baghdad.
In recent weeks, the U.S. secretly has helped the Iraqi government ship it all to Canada, where it was bought by a Canadian company for further processing into nuclear fuel — thus keeping it from potential use by terrorists or unsavory regimes in the region.
This has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. Yet, as the AP reported, this marks a "significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy."
W-w-w-wait a minute. Did IBD really cite the venerable Associated Press, who reporters just told us that WMDs "were never found"? Why, yes:
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
Seriously, guys, if this yellowcake had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction (many on the left have falsely argued that the material was only relevant to peaceful nuclear energy uses), why would they have cared about it "crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions"?
Note well: For the AP reporters to assert that WMDs "were never found" in Iraq, they will have to refute every single claim compiled by yours truly, IBD, and many others about actual findings of weapons of mass destruction — including the above definitive statement reported by the wire service itself. Obviously, they can't, and never will be able to. The AP pair's claim that WMDs "were never found" is inarguably false, does not belong in their report, and needs to be excised from it immediately with an accompanying correction issued. Period.
I should also note that dozens of Democrats, up to and including then-President Bill Clinton, asserted as an obvious, commonly known fact that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in 1998.
[3] — It's up to President Obama, in light of the intelligence and military advice he has available to him, to propose action. Then it's up to Congress to express agreement or disagreement. Even then, Obama has discretion as commander in chief, if he believes it necessary, to act without immediate congressional approval.
[4] — That's because McConnell isn't our president, guys.
The situation seems not to particularly bother President Barack Obama, who apparently doesn't care about being tagged with "fiddling while the world is burning" accusations, as he took to playing golf this weekend and to singing the economy's praises today while promoting U.S. government-sponsored manufacturing hubs.
I guess that's only a story in a Republican or conservative administration.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
