Here is the Syria timeline with regard to Obama--
The precursor to ISIS was Al-Qaeda in Iraq. If you recall Bush's much criticized-at-the-time Surge, it actually worked. AQI had been reduced down to ~ 700 members (per CIA director John Brennan). Since that time, their ranks have been allowed to grow 4,000%.
As it was regrouping and growing, Obama was not interested, calling them the “JV team.”
Then Assad violated Obama’s “red line.” But again, Obama was uninterested. This is when and how the refugee crisis began.
In Aug 2014, Obama began to publicly admit his strategy was not working and he needed a new one. However, when questioned by the NYT, Obama said building up pro-American Syrian forces as unworkable “fantasy.” Within weeks, ISIS beheaded American James Foley. On vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Obama made a brief statement about Foley -- but 8 minutes later, he was caught on video hitting the golf course.
On Sept 10, 2014, Obama went on TV to state his new plan to deal with ISIS -- arming Syrian rebels (which he had called fantasy not long before). Obama said, “This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years." By late Jan, the Yemeni government had collapsed.
In Sept 2015, in Congressional testimony, the head of Central Command, General Lloyd Austin, was forced to admit that Obama's $500M program to train the rebels had produced only “four or five” fighters. When asked about this by 60 Minutes, Obama said he always knew it wouldn’t work.
Less than one day before the Paris attacks and shortly after ISIS had killed hundreds of Russians, Turks, Iraqis, and Lebanese civilians, Obama told ABC that ISIS was “contained” inside its borders. The next day, ISIS slaughtered over 100 civilians in Paris.
In Turkey for the G-8 a few days later, it seemed US journalists had caught on to Obama at least for a moment. For the first time in his presidency, they asked him some pointed questions. He called the Paris murders kind of “setback" to his otherwise successful strategy.
The truth is Obama has never been serious about ISIS. He clearly thinks other things are more important and is just kicking the ISIS can down the road, leaving the mess for the next person to deal with. Unfortunately, the press is back to playing along as evidenced by how willingly they allowed themselves to be diverted onto whether Republicans are racists with regard the importing Syrian refugees.
So, we have a situation where Obama’s screwing around with Syria caused the refugee crisis but he is now using the refugee crisis to divert attention away from his screwing around with Syria.
