Obama's Iran obsession: Anything for that Iran deal: How Obama threw national security (and troops' lives) out the window

Anything for that Iran deal: How Obama threw national security (and troops' lives) out the window

In a major story that came and went, President Obama shut down a major drug operation run by Hezb'allah because he didn't want to upset Iran's mullahs and endanger his Iran deal.  Seems the Iran deal was considerably more important to his "legacy" than any concern about drug-dealing, the opioid epidemic, or just the idea of putting terrorists who finance themselves through the global drug trade out of business.

Politico did the story about how Obama shut down Project Cassandra, so it should have gotten attention, yet it didn't.  The whole thing recalls something security expert Rachel Ehrenfeld memorably told me in the wake of 9-11 many years ago: "All terrorism is narco-terrorism."  For Obama, all national security was about protecting his "legacy."

Turns out that wasn't the only drug operation Obama shut down.

Politico's investigative reporter, Josh Meyer, has uncovered another load of mischief around drugs and "legacy"-making from Team Obama.  Turns out the Obama administration shut down a similar operation targeted at the Taliban, not as directly as he did the Hezb'allah drug-dealing operation, but through failing to issue permissions and permits, effectively killing it off in the same passive-aggressive way Obama's IRS minions killed off the Tea Party.  A full plan, called Operation Reciprocity, was in place to shut down the Taliban, same way President Bush and President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia shut down the FARC Marxist narco-terrorists, yet nothing came of it, because of Obama.

Legal Insurrection has commentary on the story:

Meyer's reporting on Project Cassandra and Operation Reciprocity should be headlines on the front page of every major media publication.

But these reports of Obama administration malfeasance and neglect are ignored because they are inconvenient in a media environment focused exclusively on demonizing Trump.

Was that about the Iran deal, too?  Did he fail to shut down the Taliban to protect Iranian elements?  I think it's a possibility, given the mullahs' and their revolutionary guards' known involvement in the drug trade.  Anything to please the mullahs?  Or did he have a soft spot for the Taliban?  That remains to be learned.

But what is obvious is that as a result of this Obama administration malfeasance, Obama extended the Afghanistan war. U.S. troops are still sacrificing and mopping up in the Afghan hellhole.  Failing to cut off the Taliban's drug money has not only contributed to the opioid epidemic and assorted terrorist operations possibly linked to Iran here and elsewhere (here's a recent one), but also delayed our troops' execution of victory.  Seems it's been not just left-wing lawyers at the Pentagon worried about bombings of Taliban wedding parties that have tied American troops' hands behind their backs; it's also been the failure to cut off the war financing, meaning the drugs.  Just a day or two ago, American troops blew out a leading ISIS nest in Afghanistan, and you can bet that was financed, at least indirectly, by the drug trade Obama failed to shut down.  That too didn't make much news, but it was significant.  Our troops are still stuck there trying to hose that place out.

It really says something that Obama dragged the war out, while claiming to be antiwar, yet refused to supply the money-cutoff tools to make a victory possible.  He was fine with leaving without victory and making our military suffer.  What we are seeing now are swift victories, because President Trump has no such compunction about sweeping terrorists to Hell and doesn't prioritize the Iran deal for anyone, especially not the burden it brings to U.S. troops.  What's vivid here is that Trump is allowing our troops to win.  Maybe that has something to do with how he has no specific and delicate interest in preserving some hideous "legacy."