J. P. Blecksmith Did Not Die To See Iraq End Up Like This

J. P. Blecksmith was the first United States officer killed in the Battle of Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 and his family were members of my church, the Church Of Our Saviour, in San Gabriel, California.
Mr. Blecksmith was a son of the parish and was a marine corp 2nd lieutenant who came from an upper-middle class and long list of warriors family in San Marino, California. Mr. Blecksmith was a volunteer in the marine corps. No, he was not some poor, underprivileged kid from the wrong side of the tracks that joined the armed forces because he had no future, to paraphrase then Democrat presidential candidate and current secretary of state, John Kerry. He was in the marine corps and was doing his duty in Operation Enduring Freedom in liberating Iraq from the clutches of Saddam Hussein.
One does not know how he felt about all of the politics surrounding the whole Iraq theatre in the War Against Islamofacist Terror. He was a soldier. He did his job and his duty. And as all warriors fear, he gave his life for the cause.
And today we read and see that all Mr. Blecksmith and the thousands of brave soldiers, seamen, air force fighters, and marines is falling apart at breakneck speed.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Syria) has rearmed and with breakneck speed and has captured huge swaths of Iraqi territory and the major cities of Mosul and Tikrit, the hometown of the dictator, Hussein. And they have effective control of the cities of Rahmadi and yes, Fallujah. And they are setting their sights on Baghdad.
The worst part is that the ISIS has gained all of this land while also being protagonists in the Syria civil war. This timeline explains how this group was defeated and ended up now on the march. It appears that the turning point was in July, 2013 when they were able to seize the infamous Abu Gharib prison and break out 500 fellow militants. That ISIS was able to infiltrate the supposedly toughest of Iraqi prisons inside Baghdad should have been a bad sign.
Now in territory controlled by ISIS, they are imposing the ever so judicious Sharia law in such a way that I am certain the Taliban is taking notes for when they regain power in Afghanistan. As the black flag of radical Islam is planted, such wonderful things as forcing all Islamics to go to the mosque and pray five times a day. Whether they want to or not. Of course no alcohol, no smoking and no drugs. Well, one of the three may not be a bad idea. But not in the radical Islamic way. And no public gatherings that are not approved by the ISIS forces. And in its weird interpretation of Islam, they will destroy all shrines, graveyards and monuments. Remember, that is what the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan did to Buddhist shrines by blowing them up before the 9/11 terror attacks. Of course, the ladies are going to be protected by being forced to dress "modestly", re: burkas or similar restrictive clothing.
One other aspect of all of this is that the ISIS are Sunni Islamics while the government and armed forces are primarily Shia Islamic. And we now read and see that Iran is going to get involved by supporting the corrupt government of al-Maliki going so far as threatening military involvement.
The fundamental reason that this is happening is because it is the fault of the United States and directly the fault of the Dear Leader, President Obama.
Because it has been all about politics.
Remember during the 2008 presidential campaign, then Sen. Messiah Barack kept lying telling potential voters that the Iraq theatre was not one that was necessary in the WAIT. Afghanistan, that was the theatre we should have been in all the way and Iraq should have been left alone. It was kind of cute by a half for he sounded like a hawk in Afghanistan and a dove to his left-wing Democrat base on Iraq. But because the 2008 election was really not about Iraq or the overall WAIT, it sounded pretty good to a war-weary public. The United States would draw down in Iraq and leave a token force and concentrate on vanquishing the enemies in Afghanistan.
Well, negotiations broke down over how many and what the role would be of the token American forces that would remain in Iraq beyond 2011. The breakdown that led to total American military withdrawal was how American forces would or would not be granted immunity from the Iraqi government and be subject to it's laws.
Had we extended negotiations on that, we could have had a force of anywhere from 30,000 to 70,000. The 30,000 would be more than enough to continue to be a presence and train the officer corp and the regular forces.
But for Team Obama, they would rather not have any extended negotiations for if that happened and a deal could have been worked out, there would still be a strong American military presence today.
Basically it would be forces like the forces that we had in West Germany after World War II. Oh, and we still do, even though there is no threat of a Nazi resurgence that was feared in the days after the formal end of hostilities. Or the decades-long threat of communist East Germany and their patrons, the former Soviet Union that is no more.
If there was any military presence in Iraq, Team Obama would have broken a major 2008 campaign foreign policy promise. For they did not close down the Guantanamo prison where many of the worst of the worst terrorists have been and are still being held. They had to get totally out of Iraq. And thus in November, 2011, the last troops came home. And of course Team Obama used it as fulfilling a promise to be out of Iraq. Team Obama rode that to reelection.
Remember, it took years for the United States and its World War II allies to train a purely defense force in West Germany, Italy and Japan but forces did not place any false timeline for it to happen and pull armed forces out of these three nations. Again, United States forces are in all three nations. Yes, the numbers are reduced dramatically, but they are still there.
But Iraq, well when the public, fed by the Democrat party left-wing propaganda, tired of the seemingly endless military action essentially gave up. the Dear Leader, President Obama and his allies wanted to end all military action in the WAIT. They wanted to return to the pre 9/11 mindset that all this terrorism is but a legal issue and all terrorists would be prosecuted in American courts and afforded the same rights and privileges as American citizens. If convicted, they would be jailed in American prisons. Team Obama would address, as they saw it, the root causes of such terror and terrorist groups.
But, as noted, Team Obama ended up keeping Guantanamo open. Yes, they made a grave mistake in trading five former Afghan Taliban for one American soldier, and it is probably using this to empty Guantanamo any way they can. And they did not try the chief architect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, in a civilian court in New York City as the attorney general, Eric Holder, wanted to. He was tried in a military court.
So in a sense, reality smacked the collective faces of Team Obama.
But in Iraq, that did not happen. And yes, the United States is reaping what it sowed.
And yup, forces of genuine evil are on the march to Baghdad and a goal of radical Islam may come true.
The rebirth of the medieval caliphate.
And it is unfolding right before our collective eyes.
For the most part, thanks to Team Obama and wanting us to ignore the Mideast and the descent to radical Islamic chaos, we in the United States don't seem to care. I mean, if it gets in the way of the latest fauxtrage of the week, we can't be bothered.
Peace at any price is a false peace for eventually those who sue for peace end up having to fight war with enemies that do not value peace.
I don't believe that J. P. Blecksmith or any of the 4,485 other American troops that died in Iraq in Operation Enduring Freedom did so to see what is happening today. The total disintegration of Iraq into a caliphate state.