Your Smart Diplomacy Update

Al Qaeda has gone from “on the run” to “running chunks of Iraq” in just two short years:

Over the past several days, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq, has taken control of large sections of two western Iraqi cities that were once bastions for the terror group.

ISIS fighters entered the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, after the Iraqi military withdrew from them following clashes with tribes over a political standoff that resulted in the arrest of a Sunni member of parliament.

The ISIS has posted videos of its fighters entering the cities in force after clashing with Iraqi police and overrunning several checkpoints. In the videos, a large convoy of ISIS fighters driving technicals, or pickup trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on the back, is seen moving through Ramadi. The fighters are flying al Qaeda’s black banner while singing praises to al Qaeda and its “Islamic state.”

Remember when we had that surge and chased al Qaeda out of Iraq and killed thousand of jihadis and then all we had to do to keep the peace was negotiate a status-of-forces agreement with the Iraqis which the Iraqi government happened to want very badly?

Good times.