IRAQ – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  Iraq is becoming a major failure for President Obama, one of a number of foreign policy failures.  From Jen Rubin at the Washington Post:

If foreign policy has often been the refuge for second-term presidents, in Obama’s case it has become a scene out of “The Perils of Pauline.” First denying, then sending the most minimal amount of troops to show he is “doing something,” the president’s failure to degrade let alone defeat the Islamic State is undeniable. He can blame Iraq, or President George W. Bush, but the fault is his own and the stakes could not be higher for the U.S. Fred Kagan, one of the authors of Bush’s successful Iraq surge, writes, “The story of Iraq is, in some respects, even more tragic for being more avoidable. Had the Obama administration succeeded in negotiating a deal to keep American forces in Iraq after 2011, the US would have been positioned to prevent ISIS from gaining the strength and ground that it did leading up to the fall of Mosul and could have prevented that disaster. American inaction in the last few weeks has allowed ISIS to seize control of Ramadi — an eminently avoidable calamity that has completely disarranged any hope of Iraqi forces retaking Mosul this year.”

COMMENT:   Then there is the failure to deal with Putin of Russia and his chokehold on Ukraine.  And then there is the appeasement of Iran.  And the appeasement of North Korea.  And the opening to Cuba while getting nothing in return.  And the contempt for our allies.  Other than that, Obama is just swell.

June 15,  2015