“Rebalance” . . . “Pivot” . . . play from a short bench with Clueless Chuck Hagel as team captain
Some time ago Obama announced a pivot of our military toward the Pacific theater. In other words announce a retreat to a different league because of your utter failures in the current league. Employ a smoke and mirrors defense. This from Paul Mirengoff at Powerline: “The world is exploding” but Chuck Hagel is on the case
. . . Why, with what even Obama knows now, does he continue to do so?
Hagel, as the weak-minded often will, tried address this concern through a series of cliches:
Now, that said, as I’ve said, with that rebalance, which will continue, and we are committed to do that, we’re not retreating from any other part of the world. Great powers can’t pick and choose which challenges and threats they’re going to deal with. There is no power on Earth like the United States of America.
Good to hear. But what was the total pullout of troops from Iraq if not retreat? What is the coming Afghanistan pullout if not retreat? And how can a country pivot from one region to another, while slashing its defense budget, without retreating “from any other part of the world”?
Indeed. Mirengoff excoriates Hagel’s clueless answers to questions from the Marine audience. Read more here.
In other words we were little or no help at all
From the Telegraph London
Islamic State continues sweep against Kurds towards Baghdad
The fundamentalist militia continues its advance as the UN declares its highest level of emergency and fighting erupts west of the capital
I suspect the Pentagon is already destroying e-mails which contradict their new rosy assessment of how great the Yazidis actually have it (from the article):
“Disputing accounts from the UN refugee agency, which had estimated that there could be tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped in the area and surrounded by Islamic State fighters, Pentagon officials said there were a maximum of around 4,000.
“There had been reports that a rescue team, consisting of US marines and special forces units, would be mounting an operation to save the stranded Yazidis. David Cameron had also promised to “get these people off that mountain”, while The Telegraph revealed today that SAS troops are on the ground in northern Iraq.
“But a Pentagon press secretary said their new assessment wou
ld makeany rescue mission unlikely. Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, indicated today that the UK would not involve itself without the Americans.
“Rear Admiral John Kirby said today: “The team has assessed that there are far fewer Yazidis on Mount Sinjar than previously feared, in part because of the success of humanitarian air drops, air strikes on [Islamic State] targets, the efforts of the [Kurdish forces] and the ability of thousands of Yazidis to evacuate from the mountain each night over the last several days,” he said.
“The Yazidis who remain are in better condition than previously believed and continue to have access to the food and water that we have dropped.”
Can somebody yell me why they would believe ANYTHING this Administration says…about anything?
“The Yazidis who remain are in better condition than previously believed…”
In fact, according Susan Rice, the Annual Yazidi Invitational Golf Tournament just wrapped up yesterday with a gala dinner dance!
A new report from “sandals on the ground”
Interestingly, I looked up “doofus” in Webster’s unabridged and there was Chuck Hagel’s picture.
– Chuck Hagel, “Woodrow” (“He kept us out of war”) Obama’s hapless sock puppet, has taken time out from licking stamps on envelopes containing pink slips for our military leadership to make an announcement:
– US will send 130 more “military advisors” to Iraq. Hagel emphasized that all will be wearing sandals and he warned the media not to report that the Administration was putting “boots” on the ground…”they’re sandals, dammit!!”
– Asked what the advisors would be doing, Hagel said they will be doing “assessments”. Some Pentagon officials have hinted that President Obama may be working on a deal with ISIS leaders in which the US will give the Caliphate Iraq and Syria but, in turn, ISIS will pay us property taxes.
DLH w/ R Mall
