Posted on 11/01/2013 1:30:50 PM PDT by Kaslin
The White House welcome of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this week couldn't come at a more awkward time for President Obama, whose fecklessness in foreign affairs will be his most enduring legacy. He has managed to insult our most important allies again and again -- and not just in the most recent cellphone-listening scandal involving German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others. At the same time, Obama has shown weakness to our enemies. But the Maliki visit is in a category all its own.
Iraq is wracked by sectarian violence that is killing more than a thousand Iraqis a month. The level of overall bloodshed in Iraq has given cover to the Obama administration to ignore a deadly attack in which the Maliki government was, at the very least, complicit.
On September 1, death squads invaded a compound that housed Iranian refugees and summarily executed 52 individuals. The 46 men and six women -- most were shot in the head, some while handcuffed -- had been given repeated promises of protection by the U.S. government. In 2003, the U.S. gave written personal guarantees to every member of the group, the Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), in return for their relinquishing all arms. But when U.S. troops left in 2009 and turned over responsibility for protecting its residents to the Iraqis, Camp Ashraf and its successor Camp Hurriya, where most of the residents were later forced to move, came under repeated attacks. Since 2009, five separate attacks on the two camps have killed 112 residents and injured hundreds more.
But the September 1 attack was the most brazen. According to an independent investigation into the incident by German human rights organization Rights for Migrants, a group of about 120 uniformed men carrying AK-47s came into the camp, which is surrounded by more than a thousand Iraqi military troops and police. From there, the assassins went door to door rounding up residents and destroying millions of dollars in property. They also took seven people, including six women, hostage; they are still being held, likely in Iraq.
The U.S. has refused to hold the Maliki government accountable for this blatant assault on human rights, which could not have occurred without official Iraqi complicity. Instead of demanding the release of the hostages and a full independent investigation of the attack, state department officials repeatedly have said there was "no credible information to date that the Iraqi government was in any way involved." But a report by human rights lawyer Jared Genser found otherwise. After interviewing survivors and reviewing video footage of the attack, Genser and his co-authors write, "The evidence and the applicable law indicate that the government of Iraq is responsible."
The Obama administration's silence on the issue is consistent with its embarrassing overall record on human rights. The president never has made the protection of human rights a priority, but his invitation to Maliki in the face of this shameful incident is especially egregious. Dozens of members of Congress agree. Forty-five House members, Democrats and Republicans, have written the president asking that no further shipment of arms be sent to the Maliki government until it works to obtain the release of the hostages and takes "clear and verifiable steps to protect the remaining residents of Camp Hurriya." In addition, six senators, including the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have written Obama to demand greater protection for the residents from the Maliki government.
At a time when there is little bipartisan agreement on anything, these concerns voiced by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers ought to elicit some response from the White House. The president has hosted other foreign leaders with blood on their hands -- but never before when the victims held personal guarantees for their safety from the U.S. government. Nothing much embarrasses President Obama. But this surely should.
Tell him “Sorry, you had your chance” and show him the door. Please.
>> The Obama administration’s silence on the issue is consistent with its embarrassing overall record on human rights.
Well, did anyone tell Obama about the human rights violations? C’mon, how the Hell is he supposed to address these issues if he’s not aware? Jeez...
That’s a foolish attitude.
Note to self: Never give up your arms -- no matter what the form of the guarantee.
Our government is incapable of ever telling the truth about anything and this promise is no different than all of their other lies.
Obama owns this failure. It was doing just fine until he pulled the rug out from under this guy.
“Well, did anyone tell Obama about the human rights violations? C’mon, how the Hell is he supposed to address these issues if he’s not aware? Jeez...”
If Obama is to get a state visit from somebody and hasn’t been fully briefed on all aspects of what’s going on then it’s time to fire his chief of staff, his foreign affairs people, his CIA and other intelligence staff interfaces and a handful of military intelligence people. There are lots of people who have visibility to his schedule and it’s their job to make sure he’s briefed on everything.
If he’s not briefed because he’s skipping the briefings then it’s dime to fire Obama. (He has apparently skipped many briefings.)
The iraqis forced us out... refused us bases and refused to allow us to keep SpecOps operating. Tell them to go ask uncle mullah in iran for help. They are financing al qaeda so anchors away. No more American blood should be spilled for iraqis... they are not our friends or allies and never will be.
Sorry, but my give-a-damner is broke.
I just can’t force myself to care about what happens to Iranians in Iraq. Or Iraq itself for that matter.
He sure does own it
I’m thinking sooner or later a light will be turned on to a few semi-intelligent civil servants(democrats) of Obama’s Puzzle Palace(Whitehouse) & SING something is terribly wrong with the whole dang administration. It’s got to look like a hen house with chickens running around with their heads cut off! One disaster after another.
Obama is evil and stupid. It’s a really bad combination.
They used to do that in the 70's, too.
If someone did tell him, how would we be able to tell?
Or was there supposed to be an </s> in there somewhere?
They wanted to play grab-ass with the SOFA. Well, we left. You want to play in a big boy world? Well, there's big boy rules and big boy consequences. So, if they're having all these problems, TFB.
Thanks Kaslin.
President Obama and Iraqi PM al Maliki hold talks
TheWorldVideoNews | Nov 1 , 2013 | TheWorldVideoNews
Posted on 11/01/2013 3:31:33 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3086565/posts
Why? We offered to leave troops and equipment including SpecOps. They (the Iraqis) refused our Status of Forces agreement.
THEY (the Iraqis) SAID GET OUT... not us.
We are foolish to give up an opportunity to re-establish our bases there. Iraq is between Syria and Iran.
I am positive that our troops developed some good relationships with the Iraqi people. We are foolish to let those relationships fizzle out.
We can act petulant, but that won't do us any good.
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