Politics

Dem. Rep. Blames Obama’s Pull Out Of Iraq For Rise Of ISIS [VIDEO]

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Steve Guest Media Reporter
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Democratic Rep. [crscore]Seth Moulton[/crscore], a former Marine officer who served in Iraq blasted Barack Obama for how the U.S. pulled out of Iraq arguing it “created this political vacuum that ISIS came in to occupy.”

Appearing on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper on Thursday, Moulton said that the current mission in Iraq is a combat mission adding that “there’s a very fine line between an advisory mission and full-fledged combat and it’s very clear from the death of the Navy SEAL just last week that is absolutely a combat mission.” (RELATED: Navy SEAL Killed By ISIS Three Miles Behind The Front Line)

Tapper asked, “What needs to change” in America’s fight in Iraq and Moulton replied, “We need to have a clear mission for the troops, a clear end game, a clear goal that they can achieve and then a strategy to maintain the peace once we defeat this terrorist group.”

“Look, we already fought these same battles against al Qaeda but when we pulled out of Iraq so quickly, and not just pulling out the troops, I’m talking about pulling out the diplomats, the people who are working in the prime minister’s office, in the ministries. The Iraqi government went off the rails and as a result created this political vacuum that ISIS came in to occupy.”

“We cannot keep repeating this mistake in Iraq going back again and again and again.”

Tapper replied, “There are more than 4,000 military U.S personnel, military personal in Iraq right now but the White House argues this is not a combat mission. Do you think that the Obama Administration is misleading the American public?”

“This absolutely is a combat mission,” Moulton replied, “In 2004, I had an advisory mission as a marine with my platoon in Iraq, we were advisers to an Iraqi unit and when that Iraqi unit started to get overrun, we went to their assistance and it started the Battle of Najaf, which was some of the fiercest fighting of the war until that time.”

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