The 'Fair and Balanced" "news" network, a.k.a. Fox News, often seeks the sagacious perspective of a military man who once called President Obama, respectfully, "a good little Leftist." Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters (a.k.a. Puke Schwantzes), whose name is almost as unintentionally hilarious as Peter Johnson (a.k.a. Dick Schmeckle), praised the words of our new Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter. Carter understands that the Iraqi Army, comprised of loyalists to Shi'a Islam and Iran, aren't exactly the type of military helpers the Sunnis in their western province desperately need. Peters gleefully proclaimed,
"Hallelujah! Someone in Washington FINALLY gets it... it's not about numbers, it's about will!
The Iraqi Military feels little loyalty to the Sunnis under attack in Anbar Province, so ISIS has been able to claim the area for themselves.
Bush insisted Nouri Al Maliki was the man to lead Iraq after we withdrew our forces. He forgot, of course, that Saddam Hussein kept the sectarian violence between the Sunnis and the Shi'as at bay, and now there was just a Shi'a puppet who would do Iran's bidding in power. From the wreckage we created, Iraq has an army comprised of Shi'a Muslims who, to no one's surprise, have no loyalty to the Sunnis battling ISIL in the Anbar Provincial capital of Ramadi. Many of the ex Iraqi militia, the Sunni Muslims, under Saddam Hussein, joined forces with ISIL, who are the natural enemies of Iranian-back Shi'a whether they are Hezbollah or the Houthis in Yemen.
Al Maliki is largely responsible for the displacement of the Sunni militia.
A pattern of more selective law enforcement emerged from Maliki over the next few years. He opted to not pay and even arrest members of the Sunni "Sons of Iraq" who fought al-Qaida from 2006-08. His government purged Sunni members of a rival political faction that nevertheless won the 2010 parliamentary election, although Maliki dug in during a subsequent deadlock and ultimately hung on to power.
Ash Carter, our current Secretary of Defense, knows that the will of the Iraqi army, even if their numbers are greater than ISIL, is no match for a force that is fervent and highly committed to their task. Even if their task is to wreak havoc and destruction in their wake, they are excited and motivated, very much unlike the Shi'a army out of Baghdad. This is a mess precipitated by the power vacuum created by Bush 43 and his plan to rebuild Iraq without knowing one thing about the sectarian strife that plagues the region.
Fox News allows this man, Lt.Col. Peters, to criticize the Obama Administration for the mess in Iraq and Syria because no one at Faux can possibly remember the history as it actually happened, only how they have rewritten it. The masters of revisionist history have lots of helpers (anchors, reporters and expert-pundits) to bamboozle their viewers into believing their fantastical version of American History.