Marc Thiessen for the American Enterprise Institute’s AEIdeas: The Obama administration’s failure to secure a Strategic Framework Agreement with the Iraqi government, and its subsequent decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from the country, allowed al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to make a comeback. Not only has al Qaeda surged forces into Syria, according to the Washington Post it has re-established a safe haven in Iraq from which it has planned terrorist attacks against U.S. targets outside Iraq. In 2012, AQI nearly pulled off a major attack on the U.S. embassy in Jordan in 2012.

And now they have retaken major cities that were liberated with the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American servicemen and women.

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