A not uncatastrophic president

White House press secretary Josh Earnest now admits,

There were clearly, as the Iraqis have indicated, some military command and planning problems that occurred. And we saw a pretty effective tactic used by ISIL. And all of that led to a not unsubstantial setback in Ramadi."

To which Ace of Spades adds, using the White House's own

passive-voice-style double-negative construction, Obama is a not uncatastrophic president.

it has to be noted that the Obama Team's first, best, and only response to any failure is to claim that it's someone else's fault.

The only thing this Administration actually does is shift blame.

Now, we could talk about why American planes are only making thirteen airstrikes a day in Iraq and Syria. (For comparison, we made 800 per day in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and more than 1300 per day in Desert Storm.)

We could ask, if the US is only bringing air power to this fight, why we are bringing so damned little of it-- almost as if Obama wants to be seen as if he's "trying something," but in fact is set upon losing the war (as usual).

Such talk would bother Obama, who has maintained, since he came into office, that he has not made a single mistake, except for failing sometimes to communicate how awesome his decisions and policies are. (No really -- the press was always asking Bush if he made mistakes. They've only asked Obama a couple of times, and Obama always says no, not one mistake, but he allows his communications may be better.)

So the Iraq forces just lost a major town, and the US forces were doing, basically, doodly-squat while it happened.

So of course Team Obama must go into overdrive insulting the Iraqis.

...The only wars this administration cares about are publicity wars.

Ace links to an editorial in the Washington Free Beacon in which Aaron Maclean concludes,

The only thing being degraded in the campaign against the Islamic State is American prestige.

Read more here.