Pirate's Cove

Obviously, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski was heavily intoxicated, or perhaps was hanging with Maureen Dowd in Colorado, when she decided to ask Obama a tough question. Well, more than likely, she was attempting to give Obama a way to hit some talking points

(Mediaite) In an interview pre-taped Friday but aired on Morning Joe Monday morning, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski pressed President Barack Obama on the deteriorating situation in Iraq, charging, “You said that the war was ended in Iraq. You said al-Qaeda was decimated. You said it was stable.”

“It was,” Obama replied. “But just because something is stable two years ago or four years ago doesn’t mean it’s stable right now.”

OK, so, He Fixed Everything, but then something happened to cause it to go boom. Gotcha. That said, if it was stable 4 years ago, that would be more a consequence of the Bush policies, yes?

Obama emphasized that the U.S. needed to work with other forces in the region to contain ISIS, but that it couldn’t go playing “whack-a-mole,” occupying a country every time an Islamic militant group popped up in the Middle East. He also denied that there was some magic U.S. action that could have been taken in Syria to prevent ISIS’ rise, and also maintained that the situation did not change his calculus for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“We’re prepared to have a residual force that helps to continue to train [Afghan] forces, to continue to help stabilize the situation as you have a new government coming in,” Obama said. “But keep in mind that our goal in Afghanistan was to decapitate al-Qaeda, which had carried out 9/11. That has been accomplished.”

I’ll give Obama credit for taking out Osama Bin Laden. He was president at the time. Let’s also not forget that much of al Qaeda’s leadership was decapitated during the Bush years. Let’s also not forget that many remain, such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Nasser Abdul Karim al-Wuhayshi, Khalid al-Habib, and many others are still out there. Obama has done a good job in playing wack-a-mole to al Qaeda and other terrorist group leaders. That cannot be taken away from him.

The problem is that there are always Islamists willing to step up to the plate as high end leaders. And more than enough others willing to be followers in the jihad. And more than enough Madrasas, mosques, Islamic religious leaders, rich Islamic leaders, and Islamic countries willing to perpetuate radical Islam. And more than enough 1st World Citizens willing to cover their eyes to the problem of radical Islam.