How ISIS is the Obama Administration of the Middle East

Friday, January 08, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: ISIS, BaghdadiCare, national security

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(NaturalNews) Before he took office in January 2009, then-Senator Barack Obama pledged that, if elected president, he would end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, seven years later, Obama has kept half his promise.

Despite recommendations from the Pentagon to negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) with Iraq, to leave at least a small force of U.S. troops there, Obama was not interested in doing that, for, after all, he had a campaign promise to keep (one of the few). So he pulled all American forces out of Iraq, which then created a power vacuum that someone would eventually fill. That "someone" was ISIS – a Muslim extremist organization whose leaders have since carved out a caliphate (a government based on Sharia law), in territory captured from both Iraq and Syria, the latter of which has been mired in civil war for more than three years.

In a recent interview with Charlie Rose – The Daily Beast's executive editor – Michael Weiss, co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, noted that regardless of how the outside world views the caliphate, its leaders consider what they have created to be a legitimate state – as legitimate as any other nation-state. He says IS has a functioning administrative infrastructure whereby taxes are collected, restaurants are inspected to ensure safety and quality, a court system is in place based on Sharia law, and so forth. Weiss further noted that all members of ISIS receive free healthcare ("you might call it 'BaghdadiCare'") and other elements of social assistance, all of which combines to form the group's "hearts and minds" strategy.

Definite similarities

If any of this sounds familiar, that's no accident; many policies and social infrastructure practices implemented by ISIS resemble those implemented or supported by Obama.

Then there is the ISIS "deterrent" element, Weiss noted further, and that is largely embodied in the violent acts committed against non-ISIS members or existing ISIS members who violate the laws and covenants of the organization.

"If you're caught smoking cigarettes, if you're caught drinking alcohol, they'll put you in a cage in the center (of town) for three days," said Weiss. "And they'll mark your body with the crime that you've committed.

"If you've done something really bad," he continued, "such as commit treason – if they suspect you of being a spy for the coalition or of some foreign power – they'll cut your head off, put it on a stick in the middle of town and let it rot and suppurate as a deterrent to forestall any kind of resistance.

"So when we say, 'Why aren't people rising up against the caliphate?'" Weiss went on, "it's because they are employing those two strategies, both the carrot and the stick, at a very adept level."

The carrot and the stick – just what the Obama administration does with the American people.

Punishing critics

Consider how the White House reacts to criticism of its politics and policies, and for this, we needn't look much further than Obama's use of the federal bureaucracy to punish, and his treatment of the media.

As Natural News reported, Obama has used both the IRS and the EPA to punish political opponents. Officials with the Internal Revenue Service, under pressure from Congress, finally admitted that the agency inappropriately targeted conservative groups seeking legal tax-exemption status in the years and months leading up to the 2012 election. Those same officials eventually apologized, and one the top officials, Lois Lerner – who led the division that approved or denied tax exempt status for organizations – has since resigned. Officials with the EPA, who also targeted conservative groups, have not been held to account.

As for the media, the Obama administration has used the 1917 Espionage Act to go after whistle-blowers who leak information to journalists more times than any previous administration. And the White House has even sicced the Justice Department on reporters, stealing their phone records in an attempt to find out what they were working on.

Now, finally, with Obama's reluctance to go after ISIS in a serious, meaningful way, his national security policies are directly helping the organization remain in power.

Is this president as evil as the leaders of ISIS? Of course not – but there are definitely similarities in the way both administrations conduct business and implement policy.

Sources:

WarInContext.org

NaturalNews.com

PolitiFact.com