The Thursday edition of the Morning Jolt features a great deal of discussion of Christie administration’s bridge scandal, and how the winners of 2009 — Christie and Bob McDonnell — have amounted to colossal disappointments for the Right. But there’s also this fairly important news from overseas . . .
Ahem. Minor Bit of News: Al-Qaeda Controls More Territory Than Ever Before
Yet another foreign-policy triumph of the Obama administration, spotlighted by Peter Bergen:
From around Aleppo in western Syria to small areas of Falluja in central Iraq, al Qaeda now controls territory that stretches more than 400 miles across the heart of the Middle East, according to English and Arab language news accounts as well as accounts on jihadist websites.
Indeed, al Qaeda appears to control more territory in the Arab world than it has done at any time in its history.
And that’s not even counting the Taliban’s comeback in Afghanistan. That criticism from former defense secretary Robert Gates seems kind of important now, doesn’t it?
Gates writes that, unlike Bush, Obama lacked “passion, especially when it came to the two wars.”
“I worked for Obama longer than Bush and I never saw his eyes well up,” Gates writes. “The only military matter, apart from leaks, about which I ever sensed deep passion on his part was ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ ” the law prohibiting gays from serving openly in the military that Obama successfully pushed to repeal.
Remember, “Bin Laden is dead and Detroit is alive”? Detroit is bankrupt and al-Qaeda now controls more territory than ever.