GUN CONTROL IN IRAQ – AT 9:02 A.M. ET:   Iraq has been off the front pages, but the security situation there continues to deteriorate.  One reason is that Field Marshal Obama, in one of his great moments as a strategist, pulled all American troops out of Iraq, depriving the country of the stability force it needed.  Now we see the result.  From Al Arabiya News, an organization we normally don't quote: 

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday offered weapons and equipment to citizens who volunteer to fight Islamist militants, hours after the government forces lost the northern city of Mosul to the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).

In a statement broadcast on state television, Maliki said the cabinet has “created a special crisis cell to follow up on the process of volunteering and equipping and arming.”

The cabinet “praises the willingness of the citizens and the sons of the tribes to volunteer and carry weapons ... to defend the homeland and defeat terrorism,” he said.

Maliki said the cabinet also decided to “restructure and reorganize” the security forces, and to ask parliament to “announce a state of emergency.”

Hours after Maliki's statement ISIS Jhadists also seized several areas in Kirkuk province, a police officer said, according to AFP.

ISIS militants overran the Hawijah, Zab, Riyadh and Abbasi areas west of the city of Kirkuk, and Rashad and Yankaja to its south, Colonel Ahmed Taha said.

COMMENT:  I'm not claiming that this is all Obama's fault, but he certainly hasn't been helpful.  He condemned our effort in Iraq, basically insulting the sacrifices of our troops, and now shows little interest in the future of the country,

Creating a democracy is hard.  We fought the war in Korea, one of the great acts of containment of aggression in modern history, but struggled for years afterward to help South Korea build a true, functioning democracy.  Sometimes it was discouraging, but in the end it's worked out pretty well.  People like Obama don't know that history, and don't care.

June 11, 2014