2016 July 11^th

Mona Charen today tells us “Middle East problems can’t be blamed on George W. Bush.” Charen claims the charge that, “His crimes cost 4497 American and at least 160 thousand Iraqis killed, offended the Muslim world and led to the rise of ISIS.” Charen claims, “The problem with this account is that jihadism predated Bush by decades.” Of course it did, but ISIS did not and the Caliphate did not. Charen sites the bombing of a Berlin café that killed two American service men and wounded many others; and she mentions the blowing up of Pan Am flight 109 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing about 270.

Does this woman know that Muammar Khadafy sponsored these two atrocities? Does she know that this madman, the Libyan strongman who Hillary Clinton was helpful in removing from power, is now considered a “good guy” by those who want to blame Clinton for Libya’s subsequent political disintegration. Charen says not a word about Khadafy’s role in these atrocities or about Clinton’s role in eliminating Khadafy.

Charen opens her piece by telling us that ISIS is “on quite a roll.” Then, paradoxically, she describes a “neighbor” who was intercepted by the FBI before he could launch a planned “Fort Hood” style attack. A thwarted attack is an example of ISIS on a roll? But wait! Charen tells us that in spite of a long and horrific list of ISIS’ crimes, and Obama’s assertion that ISIL is contained, “The perception world-wide is that ISIS is successfully holding territory and expanding—thus earning the right to call itself a caliphate.” If that is the perception worldwide, it is wrong. My guess is that this particular perception is only Mona Charen’s personal point of view.

This caliphate, the territory that ISIS controls and where Sharia law reigns, is shrinking; it is certainly not expanding. Consider that in March of this year ISIS retreated from Palmyra, an ancient city and one of their prizes. Then in April they were driven out of Hit where previously ISIS had executed many who had opposed them when they initially captured the town. On June 27 Falluja fell and this caliphate continued to shrink. Now troops from Iraq with US air support are about to retake Mosul, the capital of this so-called caliphate.  But for Mona Charen all these losses are really ISIS continuing to expand? Hey, that’s what the woman says.

Finally Charen just has to take some smacks at President Obama; among other complaints is Obama’s “rapprochement” with Cuba and stiff-armed Israel. Charen does not comment further on our rapprochement with Cuba. We can only assume that she finds this change in our ineffective 50-year-old policy toward Cuba disturbing for reasons she will not specify. The stiff-arming of Israel is curious given that the Obama administration presents Israel with a gift of about 3 billion dollars a year. No one in Israel bothers to thank us for that, nor does Charen believe we deserve any thanks for our generosity.