Obama's Bad Intelligence & Bush's Deadly Ignorance Of Good Intel Prior To 9/11

President Barack Obama is acknowledging that U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated the threat from Islamic State militants in the Middle East and overestimated the ability and will of Iraq’s army to fight such extremists. Pictured: Peshmerga fighters hold a position in the strategic Jalawla area, a gateway to Baghdad.

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George W. Bush Ignores Urgent Intel Concerning Imminent Al-Qaeda Strike On The Homeland

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/despite-hair-on-fire-intelligence.html

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Today in the Morning Line:

• President Obama says bad intelligence, Iraqi army led to rise of IS
• Pressure is on Democrats in Iowa, as Senate control hangs in the balance
• Republicans tighten the screws in Kansas
• The Secret Service under new pressure

Blaming the intelligence: President Obama told CBS’ 60 Minutes that the intelligence community “underestimated what had been taking place in Syria” with the Islamic State group and that the U.S. overestimated the Iraqi army’s capabilities. “Over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos. … And so this became ground zero for jihadists around the world.” Meanwhile, an NBC/WSJ/Annenberg poll out over the weekend shows 72 percent of Americans believe U.S. ground troops will be used to fight IS at some point. And a plurality now says it would support the use of them if generals say they are needed — 45-37 percent. Channeling his GOP conference, House Speaker John Boehner went a step further than he has previously, backing more forcefully the idea of using U.S. ground troops. “These are barbarians,” Boehner said on ABC’s This Week, adding that if no other countries would put troops in, the U.S. would have to. “We have no choice.” Will this line from Obama to military personnel earlier this month wind up being another “red line”? “As your commander-in-chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our Armed Forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq.”