Refusing to put boots-on-the-ground in Iraq and Syria, President Barack Obama looks the other way from rampant Islamic State of Iraq and Syria mass murder, ethnic cleansing, rape, torture, and yes, egregious child abuse. Whatever the misgivings of the Iraq War, Obama went overboard avoiding the necessary military intervention to stop the worst human rights abuses since Nazi Germany. Christian officials now press Obama to call ISIS’s massacre of Christians “genocide,” triggering more extreme measures. Democratic front-runner former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had no problem, like her Husband, former President Bill Clinton, applying the term “genocide” to Kosovo in 1998, or, more recently, to justify toppling Libya strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi Aug. 24, 2011. Faced with a March 17 deadline, it’s unlikely Obama will call ISIS’s slaughter of Christians “genocide.”
Obama acquiesced to pressure to do something to deal with ISIS, ordering air strikes in Iraq and Syria in 2014. After seizing some 30% of Iraq and Syria, Obama’s strategic retreat in the region allowed ISIS to grab more sovereign land and consolidate power in the region. Reports of ISIS caliph 43-year-old Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi setting the example of raping underage minors, promoting sexual slavery after kidnapping some 5,000 Yazidi girls and women Nov.14, 2014 at Mt. Sinjar in Iraqi Kurdistan. Reluctant to put boots-on-the-ground in Iraq and Syria, Obama and his former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had no problem ordering the CIA to back the Aug. 24 coup d’etat toppling Gaddafi. Opening Libya to the same terrorist anarchy as Iraq, Obama has no answer for fixing he mess. Now pressured to label ISIS massacres genocide, Obama still sits on the fence.
Testifying in the House Foreign Affairs Committees March 2, Secretary of State John Kerry was reluctant to apply genocide to ISIS’s massacre of Christians and other ethnic groups in Iraq and Syria. “It does require a lot of fact-gathering,” Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “I mean you have to the facts from the ground, more than just anecdotal,” refusing to budge on the genocide question. “The whole world know that Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). Kerry was fully briefed about the ISIS kidnapping of thousands of Yazidi girls and women, corroborated by Nihad Barakat Shamo Alawsi kidnapped in Sinjar by ISIS terrorists together with 27 family members. Alawsi told her story in London to the U.K.-based AMAR Foundation, a group providing health care education in the Middle East.
Kerry listened attentively to endless anecdotal, but corroborating, stories on young girls abducted by ISIS and used as sex slaves. “The raped us, they killed our men, they took our babies away from us,” Alawsi now 17, told the London gathering March 9, horrifying the audience. “Girls were take from their families and raped constantly and then they were handed out to “emirs.” White House officials have been well-aware of the Nazi-like atrocities, including drowning large numbers of prisoners in steel cages, public beheadings and mafia-style executions. “It’s clear,” said Rohrabacher. “It’s time for America to act—and the excuse that we’ve got to study it, we’ve got to ask the lawyers what the wording is . . . it’s unacceptable,” heaping pressure on the White House to act responsibly. Obama committed himself to keeping U.S. soldiers out of Iraq and Syria, no matter what the atrocities.
Speaking at a White House with 44-year-old Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Obama brushed off suggestions that his policies led to the rise of GOP front-runner Donald Trump. Dismissing Trump carnival barker, Obama can’t see how his feckless Mideast policies led to the rise of a candidate promising to restore American military strength. U.N. officials estimate that Daesh still holds about 3,500 Yazidi women, not to mention Christians, Muslims and Zoroastrians. New ads by the Knights of Columbus, the largest U.S. Christian organization, seek a House Resolution calling ISIS slaughter of Christians “genocide.” With over 200 bipartisan sponsors, the bill would state for the record the ISIS genocide of Christians in Iraq and Syria. “All you have to do is look at the picture and you know this is genocide,” said Andrew Walther, vice president with Knights of Columbus.
Running out of excuses on stronger military action in Iraq and Syria, the White House fuels the avalanche of criticism coming its way. “It’s not a life, we are not living a life until the rest of our people [Yazidis] are released by Daesh [ISIS],” said Alawsi, begging the West to intervene more forcefully. More stories of ISIS atrocities make the case to voters looking for a stronger U.S. response to ISIS. Whether it’s labeled “genocide” or not, Obama’s reluctance to intervene impairs U.S. global leadership. Bombing ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria hasn’t stopped the atrocities or ended the worst reign of terror since Nazi Germany. “I beg you to help my people, to save them from Daesh, and to free especially the sex slaves, the young girls and children that have been taken,” said Alawsi, urging the West to do more. Obama’s feckless approach makes the strongest case for new White House leadership.
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