Obama rhetoric vs. reality

By Tom Quiner

Here is what the president said:

“In Iraq and Syria, American leadership—including our military power—is stopping ISIL’s advance.”

You didn’t have to be tuned into the State of the Union address to imagine his voice, imperious, dripping with certitude.

His rhetorical strutting coincided with the the fall of Yemen, another Mideast country about to become an al Qaida stronghold.

The Wall Street Journal’s, Peggy Noonan, had this reaction:

“Really? Few on the ground see anything but an Islamic State on the move. Literally as the president spoke, Yemen’s government was falling to Iranian-backed groups whose takeover is assumed to be good news for an al Qaeda branch poised to fill the void. The president’s habit of detaching from what is actually happening—of declaring in fact that the opposite is happening—is a marvel to behold. History will speak of it.”

The president made a decision to withdraw all American troops from Iraq, against the advice of military advisors who pointed to our success in Germany, Korea, and Japan. The presence of American forces in those locales have produced a half a century of stability.

Not a bad track record.

With America’s withdrawal, ISIL (ISIS) quickly filled the void, fueling radical Islam’s expansion throughout the Mideast.

Is the president the only person in the world who thinks we’re stopping ISIL’s advance? While he offers up outlandish free community college schemes and flits off to India for climate change conferences, evil spreads.

And he does nothing.