In effort to shield Obama from criticism on ISIS, White House makes everything worse

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Hot Air:

Ben Rhodes, the White House’s deputy national security advisor, made things a lot worse for President Barack Obama today.

 

As AllahPundit observed, the White House has been in a crouch since Wednesday over the president’s decision to continue with his vacation plans – most notably to allow his golf game to persist uninterrupted – in the wake of the beheading of an American at the hands of Islamic State terrorists.

 

Obama’s supporters dismiss criticisms of the president not allowing the outbreak of war on several continents to conflict with his vacation plans as just more irrational and partisan attacks. The White House has, however, not been so dismissive. In fact, their responses could be more accurately characterized as defensive.

 

“Aides said the golf game did not reflect the depth of his grief over Mr. Foley, noting that the president had just spoken with his parents that morning,” The New York Times reported on Thursday. Translation: this is bad, let’s play cleanup.

 

But Rhodes’s statements today made a whole new mess of Obama’s ill-timed golf outing.

________

 

[Cyber_Liberty]

Let us not forget the deliberate leak of the attempted rescue missions. To me, that's the worst thing they've done this week, endangering the lives of our Special Forces people operating in-country. By leaking that, they've ensured any present and future hostages are dead people walking.

[Valin]

BUT Wait! It gets better!

 

State Dept Rejects ISIL’s Claim It Is At War With America
Harf: This is not about ISIL vs. the U.S.

 

 

Harf maintained, “Well, they can say whatever they’d like, but what I am making clear is that’s not what ISIL represents. And they don’t represent any religion. They are at war with everybody they come into contact with.”

 

______________________________________________________________________________________

 

If it is possible for these clowns to get any stupider....please don't let me know. My life is already so full.

[Draggingtree]

We have never been at war with Eastasia

By: streiff (Diary) | August 23rd, 2014 at 12:37 PM

 

When Obama took a break from golfing to make a statement on the ritual slaughter of photojournalist James Foley by ISIS/ISIL he included this line:

 

They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision, and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior.

 

This formula was expanded upon at the Thursday press briefing held at the State Department. State was ably represented by spokeswoman Marie Harf so gibberish ensued:

 

http://www.redstate.com/2014/08/23/never-war-eastasia/

[Valin]

The Syrian Coalition’s frustration with Obama boils over
Paul Mirengoff
August 24, 2014

 

The Syria Coalition — the non-jihadist Syrian rebels whose requests for help President Obama has largely blown off for years — has issued a statement ascribing “much of the responsibility” for James Foley’s execution to the United States for “not react[ing] to the Assad regime’s repeated crossing of the red lines it had drawn and warned against crossing.” You can read the reasoning here.

 

How fair is the Syria Coalition’s charge? As I understand it, Foley initially fell into the hands of forces loyal to the Assad regime. This occurred in November 2012.

 

How did Foley wind up with ISIS? Either ISIS captured him from Assad’s military or Assad’s military handed him over to ISIS. Given the extent of cooperation between Assad and ISIS, I would probably bet on the latter scenario.

 

To the extent the Syria Coalition’s charge focuses on “red lines,” the question is, had Obama taken military action in response to Assad’s use of chemical weapons, would Foley not have been executed. Given the facts surrounding Foley’s abduction and chain of custody, the answer, I think, is that Obama’s response, or lack thereof, probably had no effect on Foley’s fate.

 

(Snip)