Days before 9/11 Obama authorizes additional embassy security for Baghdad

On Tuesday, the White House announced that it's sending more troops to Iraq to protect the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad:

Press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement that that the Defense Department authorization stemmed from a State Department request for “approximately 350 additional U.S. military personnel to protect our diplomatic facilities and personnel.”

“This action was taken at the recommendation of the Department of Defense after an extensive interagency review, and is part of the President’s commitment to protect our personnel and facilities in Iraq as we continue to support the Government of Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). These additional forces will not serve in a combat role,” Earnest said.

Thank God Obama seems to have learned from Benghazi that you don't deny State Department requests for more embassy security in a volatile region of the world - especially ahead of the anniversary of 9/11.

The PJ Tatler notes:

It also comes after Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) warned Sunday that Baghdad could be the next to fall.

“I believe their goal is Baghdad. I think it’s very, very serious and we have to have a strategy to deal with it in Syria and in Iraq in this new caliphate and to prevent that caliphate from expanding,” she said, stressing that ISIS “is on its way to Baghdad and I believe that they will try to attack our embassy from the West, which is a Sunni area where I believe they are infiltrating now.”

Scary stuff!

The infuriating part is that if we hadn't left in 2011, we wouldn't have to go back in now and the world would be a much safer place. Obama better get a strategy quick or ISIS is going to do a LOT worse than have a pool party at our embassy.

Originally posted at The Political Insider

SCARY: Obama doesn’t “have a strategy yet” for ISIS

Does Obama even care anymore? I mean, really, could he be any more aloof and detached? After last week's tone deaf, out-of-touch, "now watch this drive" moment when he golfed immediately after expressing his heartbreak over James Foley's execution and pledging vigilance, now he says he doesn't have a strategy against ISIS:

“We don’t have a strategy yet,” Mr. Obama said of his plans for defeating the Islamic State in Syria. “We need to make sure that we’ve got clear plans. As our strategy develops, we will consult with Congress.”

After a week of speculation that he was about to expand U.S. airstrikes against the terrorist group — also known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS — from its positions in Iraq to those in Syria, the president said he has ordered his military advisers to give him “a range of options.”

But Mr. Obama tried to tamp down the suggestion that his decision was imminent, saying “folks are getting a little further ahead of where we’re at than we currently are.”

That's because Obama should be much further ahead on this! This is an urgent situation and he's known about the threat from ISIS and its previous iterations for years (although he infamously dismissed them as the "jayvee team"). He should have already had a strategy and contingency plans, the admission that he doesn't is just more evidence of how unfit he is to be Commander-in-Chief.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest offered this inexplicable "clarification" of Obama's comments:

In his remarks today, POTUS was explicit - as he has been in the past - about the comprehensive strategy we'll use to confront ISIL threat.

— Josh Earnest (@PressSec) August 28, 2014

In what world is "we don't have a strategy" an "explicit...comprehensive strategy?!" A world where war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.

Mind-boggling.

Originally published on The Political Insider.