Obama was offered the opportunity to work out a Status of Forces agreement with Iraq...but really didn't want to leave the 10,000 troops that Maliki wanted in place.
You can decide if the reason was to support ISIS or some other reason....
But he could have avoided these barbarians taking over....
Who says so?
General Barbero, on CNN yesterday:
"BLITZER: The president's military plan to dismantle and ultimately destroy the terror group, ISIS, involves sending, at least for now, another 475 U.S. military advisors to Iraq, launching air strikes in Iraq and Syria, arming and training moderate Syrian rebels. Let's discuss. Joining me, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Barbaro. General, thanks very much for coming in.
LT. GEN. MICHAEL BARBERO, U.S. ARMY, RETIRED: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: I want to get to that. But you were there. You were on active duty in Iraq, 2010, 2011 when they were trying to negotiate that Status of Forces -
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: -- Agreement that would have left a residual force, 5,000 or 10,000 U.S. troops, but you couldn't get immunity from Nuri al Maliki's government. Take us behind the scenes, clarify, who's right, John McCain or Jay Carney, in this debate.
BARBERO: Well, in the summer of 2010, prepared a briefing, I was responsible for Iraqi security forces, and took it to all the Iraqi leaders, Maliki, the other Shia leaders, the Sunnis, the Kurds, and said here is going to be the status of your security forces, what they cannot do, what they will be able to do, when we're schedule to leave. And to a man they said, well, general, you must stay. And my response was, you must make it easy for us. So I think Maliki did not make it easy for us and we did not try hard enough. So it's a -- both views. I think it could have been done though.
BLITZER: Because the U.S. -- the Pentagon position was, 5,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops staying -
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: For an indefinite amount of time.
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: But you wanted immunity from prosecution as part of the status of forces agreement. What happened then because the White House says Nuri al Maliki wouldn't give that immunity to any residual U.S. force.
BARBERO: I think we could have worked it and kept it from going through the parliament. I think we could have - we have immunity today, it didn't go through the parliament. So I think it could have been worked if we had tried harder.
BLITZER: You don't think the administration tried hard enough to get it?
BARBERO: I don't think so.
BLITZER: That's the McCain position, that could have been done but the White House didn't want it to be done. They wanted all U.S. troops.
BARBERO: I don't think we tried hard enough.
BLITZER: You think it was - it was definitely doable.
BARBERO: I think it was. BLITZER: There was another argument that the Pentagon wanted 5,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops to remain.
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: The White House said maybe 1,000 or 2,000 for a year and the Iraqis said well that's not good enough.
BARBERO: Right. No, and -
BLITZER: Was - is that true?
BARBERO: That is true. And we wanted them pulled back on these training sites where we're fielding military equipment to train the Iraqi, not in any kind of combat role at all."
CNN.com - Transcripts
Obama arranged for the field to be left open for ISIS.
You decide why.
You can decide if the reason was to support ISIS or some other reason....
But he could have avoided these barbarians taking over....
Who says so?
General Barbero, on CNN yesterday:
"BLITZER: The president's military plan to dismantle and ultimately destroy the terror group, ISIS, involves sending, at least for now, another 475 U.S. military advisors to Iraq, launching air strikes in Iraq and Syria, arming and training moderate Syrian rebels. Let's discuss. Joining me, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Barbaro. General, thanks very much for coming in.
LT. GEN. MICHAEL BARBERO, U.S. ARMY, RETIRED: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: I want to get to that. But you were there. You were on active duty in Iraq, 2010, 2011 when they were trying to negotiate that Status of Forces -
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: -- Agreement that would have left a residual force, 5,000 or 10,000 U.S. troops, but you couldn't get immunity from Nuri al Maliki's government. Take us behind the scenes, clarify, who's right, John McCain or Jay Carney, in this debate.
BARBERO: Well, in the summer of 2010, prepared a briefing, I was responsible for Iraqi security forces, and took it to all the Iraqi leaders, Maliki, the other Shia leaders, the Sunnis, the Kurds, and said here is going to be the status of your security forces, what they cannot do, what they will be able to do, when we're schedule to leave. And to a man they said, well, general, you must stay. And my response was, you must make it easy for us. So I think Maliki did not make it easy for us and we did not try hard enough. So it's a -- both views. I think it could have been done though.
BLITZER: Because the U.S. -- the Pentagon position was, 5,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops staying -
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: For an indefinite amount of time.
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: But you wanted immunity from prosecution as part of the status of forces agreement. What happened then because the White House says Nuri al Maliki wouldn't give that immunity to any residual U.S. force.
BARBERO: I think we could have worked it and kept it from going through the parliament. I think we could have - we have immunity today, it didn't go through the parliament. So I think it could have been worked if we had tried harder.
BLITZER: You don't think the administration tried hard enough to get it?
BARBERO: I don't think so.
BLITZER: That's the McCain position, that could have been done but the White House didn't want it to be done. They wanted all U.S. troops.
BARBERO: I don't think we tried hard enough.
BLITZER: You think it was - it was definitely doable.
BARBERO: I think it was. BLITZER: There was another argument that the Pentagon wanted 5,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops to remain.
BARBERO: Right.
BLITZER: The White House said maybe 1,000 or 2,000 for a year and the Iraqis said well that's not good enough.
BARBERO: Right. No, and -
BLITZER: Was - is that true?
BARBERO: That is true. And we wanted them pulled back on these training sites where we're fielding military equipment to train the Iraqi, not in any kind of combat role at all."
CNN.com - Transcripts
Obama arranged for the field to be left open for ISIS.
You decide why.