08-21-2014, 10:00 PM
August West wrote:
We were winning the Long War against worldwide Islamo-fascism, before this administration came into power.
Are you on crack?
At the end of George W. Bush's second term, Saddam Hussain and sons were gone, al Qaeda in Iraq had been defeated, Khadafy in Libya had been cowed into giving up his nuclear-weapons program, Israel was confident in their US supporter and ally, Islamist movements in Southeast Asia and the Philippines had been weakened (by covert action). Afghanistan's Taliban (with its safe havens in western Pakistan) was still a problem, as was Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and its nuclear program. Syria had yet to erupt, but was under close scrutiny by the US and Israel (as Assad had received truckloads of Saddam's chemical weapons).
Most important, it was understood that we were engaged in a decades-long campaign, if not to "drain the swamp," at least to keep the worldwide Islamo-fascist movement on the defensive and preoccupied locally, rather than organizing terrorist attacks against the US and Europe. I think in that sense we were winning, though we had by no means won. North Africa, for instance, was becoming a serious problem.
In the last six years, we have taken our eye off the ball. Here is Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on ISIS/ISIL:
https://news.yahoo.com/hagel-islamic-sta...40920.html wrote:
Hagel: Islamic State 'beyond anything we've seen'
Washington (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Thursday that the Islamic State is more than a traditional "terrorist group" and better armed, trained and funded than any recent threat.
"They marry ideology and a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well funded. This is beyond anything we have seen," Hagel told reporters.
/Mr Lynn