An especially militant offshoot of Al-Qaeda called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, has taken control of several cities in Iraq. They took Fallujah earlier this year, Mosul and Tikrit both in the past few days, and now it's looking like Baghdad might be next on their list. The prime minister of Iraq has asked for help, but President Obama has yet to offer any. Drone strikes may or may not still be on the table, but Obama has completely ruled out sending any ground troops back into Iraq.
Obama seems to want to have it both ways by taking all the credit for "ending" the Iraq War while still counting on all the blame for the inevitable horrors that follow to be laid at Bush's feet. The thing is, Obama has already had a hand in creating these horrors for years. The maniac currently running ISIL is someone that Obama set free when he needlessly shut down the Camp Bucca prison in 2009. Obama also gave ISIL a head start when he took it upon himself to supply Syrian rebels with weapons and training without giving much thought as to how radicalized the rebels were becoming or how the weapons or training might be used against us later.
Some people refer to ISIL as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria instead, or ISIS, which can be misleading. Not only does ISIL want to control Iraq and Syria, but also Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Cyprus, and part of Turkey; since President Obama always makes a point of referring to the group as ISIL instead of ISIS, I have to assume that he knows this. The leader of ISIL has even specifically threatened the United States, and yet Obama would have you believe that ISIL is a problem that we should leave to the Iraqis to figure out for themselves.
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