The Latest Re-Write Of History: Bush and Hawkish GOP Created ISIS

In the latest attempt to "cleanse" Obama's legacy of any blame, the political left is perpetuating a lie that George W. Bush created ISIS.  The genesis of this current untruth is an accusatory commentary that was aired by the left-wing MSNBC host Chris Matthews on September 10, 2014. In that commentary, he claimed that the success of ISIS on the battlefield was a direct result of the Bush administration's disbanding of Iraqi army leaders who eventually joined ISIS. The problem with this theory is that, never once, has either Chris Matthews or MSNBC been able to substantiate any of their so-called facts. See fact check below which gives him a big fat "mostly false" for the claim.

Now, here's the truth. 

ISIS was founded under the name Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999 by a Jordanian by the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi with the intent of establishing a Sunni Caliphate in the ancient area known as the Levant.  This was 2 years before Bush came to office and 5 years before we went to war in Iraq.  The group which was headquartered in Fallujah, Iraq had set up operations and was growing in size hoping to eventually take over Jordan.  Once done, Jordan would become the base of operations from which the rest of the Levant could be seized and forced to join the Caliphate.  However, once Fallujah fell to U.S. forces, they were forced to flee to Syria.  They reconstituted themselves with the new name ISIL in the vacuum of the civil war that was then raging.  After growing in size and taking more and more territory in Syria, they used the removal of U.S. forces in Iraq as an opportunity to move back across the border and overtake Fallujah as part of the Islamic State.  Obama ignored them and called them a JayVee team.    Now, just how does Bush fit into that whole scenario?


Still, the lie lives on.  Recently, a 19 year old girl verbally attacked Jeb Bush at a campaign event challenging him on the fact that his brother created ISIS.  That video then went viral; spreading to millions.  Something that the source, Chris Matthews couldn't do, because of his small audience. 

The saddest fact about all of this is that this fabricated story is also being perpetuated by an idiot Senator by the name of Rand Paul who is attempting to win the GOP nomination. While not mentioning Bush's name directly, he claimed that ISIS was a product of a "hawkish GOP".  A statement that he is now trying to walk back.  It's bad enough that the political left is perpetuating the lie.  Now, we have a republican Presidential candidate fueling it with his own rewrite of history.  That is irresponsible and another reason why Rand Paul should never be a candidate for the Presidency.

References:

Matthews: [Bush and] Cheney's post-Saddam tactic created ISIS: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/sep/15/chris-matthews/matthews-cheneys-post-saddam-tactic-created-isis/

Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad [ISIL]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama%27at_al-Tawhid_wal-Jihad

Video Exclusive: Student who confronted Jeb on ISIS | MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/exclusive--student-who-confronted-jeb-on-isis-445900867908

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) backtracked on his recent comments that hawkish Republicans were responsible for creating the Islamic State: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/rand-paul-isis_n_7492994.html

FLASHBACK to January: Obama Calls ISIS 'JV Team': http://www.tpnn.com/2014/08/22/flashback-to-january-obama-calls-isis-jv-team/

Obama's Disingenuous 10 Million Job Creation Claim

At a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation event last week, Barack Obama took credit for creating 10 million new jobs in the last 54 months.  Of course, what he didn't tell this African-American group is that blacks got very few of those 10 million jobs.  That's because, in 2009, when he took office, black unemployment was 12.6%.  Today, it has only mildly decreased to  11.4%; or, only a 9.5% improvement. On the other hand, white unemployment now stands at 5.3% after having been at 6.9% when Obama took office; a 23% reduction in that unemployment rate.

Nor, did he mention that before creating 10 million jobs, 4.3 million where lost.  Something that was never supposed to happen with the passage of his near trillion dollar stimulus package.  Nor, did he own up to the fact that in most of those 54 months, there was only job creation because workers stopped looking for work.  For example, last month saw a job growth of 142,000.  At the same time,  268,000 able-bodied workers just gave up looking.  If those 268,000 workers, when polled, had said they were still looking for work, they would had been counted as part of the workforce and, as a result,  there would have been a reported loss of 126,000 jobs instead of the reported gain.  Today, the real unemployment rate, when adding in those workers who have given up, is 12%.  That means that there are 9.3 million workers who are sitting home when they could actually be working.  A number almost equal to the number of jobs that Obama claims to have created.

Lastly, half of all the jobs created by the President have been low paying.  That's why median incomes continue to be lower than they were when he took office:

References:

Obama proudly announces 10m jobs created since he was elected - but he forgot to mention the 4.3m lost along the way: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2772360/Obama-proudly-announces-10m-jobs-created-elected-forgot-mention-4-3m-lost-way.html

Employment Report January 2009: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_02062009.htm

August 2014 Employment Report: Table A-2. Employment status of the civilian population by race, sex, and age: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm

Alternative Measures of Unemployment: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm

 Half Of All Jobs Created In The Past 3 Years Were Low-Paying: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/low-paying-jobs_n_3266737.html

Real Median Household Incomes: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrEZN56FgagV7kK68-FbuUtVMNcdA4gJRlDCQe8MJhfpK4tstbMzL2ydC17Kgf6WaU2UNvvI-LiAPsh0L4XT8h3z5bsTUjMBtlbmkUILa1Kic3fRovz9hhoSH4VWhwG_8GJHniP5yo9k/s1600/RealHousehold2013.PNG

Source of Graph: Census: Poverty Rate declined in 2013, Real Median Income increased slightly: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2014/09/census-poverty-rate-declined-in-2013.html