Yes, Obama and Clinton Are Responsible for the Birth of ISIS

The mainstream media, liberal pundits and the Clinton campaign have lambasted Donald Trump this week for saying President Obama is the “founder” of ISIS and Clinton is the “co-founder” and ISIS’ most valuable player.

Trump also said ISIS is hoping Clinton wins the election.

Suddenly CNN decided to be a stickler about campaign rhetoric. Its on-screen chyron had an unusual editorial comment in parentheses disputing Trump’s claims.

Mainstream reporters snickered about Trump’s ignorance, claiming it’s insulting to say the president of the United States started a terrorist organization and claiming ISIS was really founded in 2003 due to the invasion of Iraq by the Bush administration.

The press knew Trump’s comments were sarcastic but instead of focusing on the point he was making — that the disastrous Obama/Clinton foreign policy is responsible for the birth of ISIS — it instead decided to treat Trump’s comments as a blatant lie or evidence that he does not understand foreign affairs.

Far-left CNN reporter Peter Bergen tried to defend Clinton from Trump’s accusation by noting that ISIS was not formed until April 2013 — two months after she resigned as secretary of state. This is a dishonest argument since the bloodthirsty jihadist organizations which merged to formally become ISIS developed on Clinton’s watch.

Bergen knows the formal announcement of ISIS in April 2013 was a technicality and that four years of incompetent policies by Clinton were responsible for this announcement.

Trump is making the point that irresponsible policies by Obama and Clinton led to the resumption of sectarian violence in Iraq which allowed al-Qaida in Iraq to rise from the ashes and morph into ISIS.

I believe Trump is exactly right.

The Obama/Clinton decision not to leave behind a small contingent of U.S. troops in Iraq after 2010 and the power vacuum created by the administration’s failure to lead in the Middle East is why ISIS exists and why it has become a global threat.

In my view, Obama’s and Clinton’s incompetence are undoubtedly responsible for the birth of ISIS.

The mainstream media does not want to talk about this. It knows ISIS did not exist when President Obama entered office. It also knows that ISIS grew from zero affiliates in 2009 to 43 affiliates today in 18 countries.

CNN this morning is jumping on a tweet Trump sent yesterday clarifying that his claim about Obama and Clinton being the founder and co-founder of ISIS was sarcasm. This makes me wonder how dumb CNN thinks the American people are — they obviously knew this.

One can argue that a presidential candidate shouldn’t be using sarcasm on such a dire national security issue, but by doing so Trump forced the mainstream media to talk about a subject it was purposely avoiding and encouraged Americans to think about whether Obama/Clinton policies are responsible for the birth of ISIS.

Maybe Donald Trump has a better understanding of foreign affairs and the news media that his Democratic and press critics realize.

Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst, followed the Iranian nuclear program for the CIA, State Department, and House Intelligence Committee. He is senior vice president for policy and programs at the Center for Security Policy. Read more reports from Fred Fleitz — Click Here Now.