Enabling the Enemy: A new era of foreign policy?

July 21, 2015

WRITER

President Obama came into office promising a new era of American foreign policy in the Middle East. He said he’d restore America’s standing in the world, but after 6 years has he made any progress? Or is he repeating the exact same mistakes America has made in the past by enabling the enemy of our enemy?

TheBlaze's Jason Buttrill and Dan Andros explain:

Dan: Hey, Dan Andros, head writer here at TheBlaze again with you with Jason Buttrill. He’s chief researcher here, and he’s also former military intelligence. We’re going through all of the foreign policy blunders that this administration and previous administrations have made in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria with ISIS. When we last picked it up, it was our mistakes that led to helping and aiding the creation of ISIS, which they later migrated into Syria and then invaded back into Iraq.

Now America is presented with a choice: We can either help the Kurds, who are the good guys, or we can once again make the same mistakes we make over and over again. So, what do we choose?

Jason: If you ask Obama what our strategy is, he’ll tell you like he told the rest of the country. He said the Pentagon hadn’t given him a strategy yet. He basically said there is no strategy. We’re spending billions and billions of dollars on airstrikes and training. That’s got to be part of a strategy. If not, we’re just wasting a ton of money.

The real thing is that Obama doesn’t want you to know what the strategy is because we’re making the same mistakes that we’ve always made. His strategy is the enemy of our enemy is our friend. Wrong. We should not be playing that game. If that’s his strategy, which that is the strategy where we’ve basically laid that out, that is their strategy, he should just own up to it and say that’s our strategy, instead of trying to mislead the public into something else.

The current airstrikes are part of an operation called Inherent Resolve. Inherent Resolve is doing airstrikes in both Syria and Iraq. Now, if you look at those airstrikes, there’s a three to one ratio. Most of the airstrikes are happening in towns in Iraq versus in Syria. Well, the capital of the caliphate is in Syria, in Raqqah. Most of their supply lines run from Syria into Iraq. Now, why aren’t we bombing all those supply lines? Why are we not shocking and awing Raqqah?

Dan: Right. That’d be cutting out the heart.

Jason: Exactly. That’s what we did in the first Iraq war, and we were able to bring the Iraqi army to their knees by doing that strategy. It’s the same people. Why don’t we do the same strategy? Let’s do it again. It’ll work. We’re not doing that.

Dan: So, why aren’t we? What are they doing?

Jason: The French Foreign Minister said not too long ago, he kind of let it slip. He said that we cannot have a stable Iraq without a political transition first in Syria. I think that was a huge mistake, and I think that shows what they’re trying to do. Now, they’re not destroying those supply lines. They’re leaving those supply lines from Syria to Iraq open that ISIS is using. I think they’re leaving those open and with more airstrikes in Iraq because they’re trying to push ISIS back into Syria. Again, the enemy of my enemy is our friend. They want ISIS not to attack the Iraqi government which still is making screw-ups over there. They want them attacking someone that everyone can agree is an enemy, Assad in Syria. That’s what they want.

Dan: But that’s not what they want to do. That’s not what the bad guys want to do. They’re going back from where they came from.

Jason: First of all, who are these Iraqi units they we’re providing airstrikes for? It’s not American troops. It’s very rarely the Kurds, although sometimes it is the Kurds in the north, and they’ve made gains off of that, admittedly, but it’s usually in support of Iraqi Shia militias that are backed by Iran. They’re called the PMU, and these guys, the Kurds have a name for them. They called them the Shiite Islamic State because they are just as bad as ISIS.

We are providing close air support for them. It’s true. We’re providing close air support for them. These are the same militias that were killing our troops back in the Iraq war, the exact same guys.

Dan: And now we’re helping them.

Jason: Now we’re helping them. Some of their big personalities, there’s one called Abu Azrael. That translates into the Angel of Death.

Dan: Follow him on Facebook. It’s quite an entertaining follow.

Jason: At TheBlaze, we call him the king of selfies because that’s basically all he’s good for. You’ll see him holding an ax and an M4 but never really shooting it actually at anybody. Abu Azrael brags on social media, and he brags on YouTube. There’s video of him doing this, saying that they got training in both Lebanon and Iran. The head of the PMU, he was just photographed with the President Rouhani in Iran and the Prime Minister of Iraq. They’re not even trying to hide it.

These are the guys that they are now in bed with, and we’re enabling that. It makes no sense. Just last month we announced at a new airbase, the Taqaddum Airbase, we were adding in another 450 advisors to continue to train these tribes. Well, it’s funny because a couple of months ago, another base that we already do this at, they reported that they hadn’t had one new recruit in months, up to six months, not one new recruit.

So, who are we training? It’s a big PR stunt. We sent in 450 advisors, our own boys, our own men, to go in there as a big PR stunt. We’re putting them in a base that Iranian backed Shia militias also bunk at. These are the guys that were killing us a decade ago, and now they’re sharing the same base. Their barracks are across from each other.

In light of all this, now that we know all this, we have to transition from enabling the enemy to propping up people that actually makes sense. Talk about the tragedy of the Kurds, the Kurdish people have been gassed, bombed, brought to the brink of genocide for as long as I can remember. Now they’re denying all of that. Bring us all of the people that have been run out of their homes and villages by ISIS. We’ll take them all in. We’ll not only shelter them, clothe them, and feed them, but we’ll protect them with our own soldiers. They don’t care if they’re Sunni, they’re Shia, they’re Christian. They don’t care what they are. They don’t care what tribe they come from, if their Arab, Kurd, whatever. They’re just taking them all in because they believe all lives matter.

Now, why aren’t we arming them to the teeth? Why are we not training them? Why is not all of our money going to these people? They’ve earned it.

Dan: It especially makes no sense when you realize we’ve got a great option there. We can support the Kurds, the guys who are doing the right thing, share the same values that we share as Americans, but once again, we are making the same mistake we’ve made throughout history, and we’re enabling our enemy by making the enemy of our enemy our friend—same foreign policy mistakes, different year.

Trump exposes Left’s habeas corpus hijack in border crisis

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Democrats accused the president of declaring war on civil rights. In reality, he’s defending habeas corpus while they drown it in delays and legal loopholes.

Tuesday’s congressional testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem turned heads for all the wrong reasons. Pressed to define “habeas corpus,” she stumbled. And while I respect Noem, this moment revealed just how dangerously misunderstood one of our most vital legal protections has become — especially as it’s weaponized in the immigration debate.

Habeas corpus is not a loophole. It’s a shield. It’s the constitutional protection that prevents a government from detaining a person — any person — without first justifying the detention before a neutral judge. It doesn’t guarantee freedom. It demands due process. Prove it or release them.

Bureaucratic inertia, activist judges, and political cowardice have turned due process into a slow-motion invasion. And the left knows it.

And yet, this doctrine — so essential to our liberty — is now being twisted by the political left into something it was never meant to be: a free pass for illegal immigration.

The left wants to frame this as a matter of compassion and rights. Leftists ask: “What about habeas corpus for migrants?” The implication is clear: They see any attempt to enforce immigration law as an attack on civil liberties.

But that’s a lie. Habeas corpus is not an excuse for indefinite presence. It doesn’t guarantee that every person who crosses the border gets to stay. It simply requires that we follow a process — a just process.

And that’s exactly what President Donald Trump has proposed.

Habeas corpus, rightly understood

Habeas corpus is the front door to the courtroom. It simply requires the government to justify why someone is being held or detained. It’s not about citizenship. It’s about human dignity.

America’s founders knew this — and that’s why they extended the right to persons, not just citizens. Habeas corpus isn’t a pass to stay in America forever — it’s a demand for legal clarity: “Why are you holding me?” That’s it.

If the government has a lawful reason — such as illegal entry — then deportation is a legitimate outcome. And yet, the left treats any enforcement of immigration law as a betrayal of American ideals.

The danger today isn’t that habeas corpus is being ignored; it’s that it’s being hijacked. The system is being overwhelmed with bad-faith cases, endless appeals, and delays that stretch for years. Right now, the immigration courts are buried under 3.3 million pending cases. The average wait time to have your case heard is four years. In some places, people are being scheduled for court dates as far out in 2032. Where is the justice in that?

This is not compassion. This is national sabotage.

Weaponizing due process

The left uses this legal bottleneck as a weapon, not a shield. Democrats invoke due process as if it requires the government to play a never-ending shell game with public safety. But that’s not what due process means. Due process means the state must play by the rules. It means a judge hears a case. It means the law is applied justly and equally. It does not mean an open border by procedural default.

So no, Trump is not proposing the end of habeas corpus. He’s calling out a broken system and saying, out loud, what millions of Americans already know: If we don’t fix this, we don’t have a country.

This crisis wasn’t an accident — it was engineered. It’s a Cloward-Piven playbook, designed to overwhelm the system. Bureaucratic inertia, activist judges, and political cowardice have turned due process into a slow-motion invasion. And the left knows it.

Abandon the Constitution?

Remember, the Constitution is not a suicide pact. But how do we balance the Constitution and our national survival without descending into authoritarianism? Abandon the Constitution? No. Burn the house down to get rid of the rats? Absolutely not. The Constitution itself gives us the tools to take on this crisis head on.

The federal government has clear authority over immigration. Illegal presence in the United States is not a protected right. Congress has the power to deny entry, enforce expedited removals, and reject bogus asylum claims. Much of this is already authorized by law — it’s simply not being used.

President Trump’s idea is simple: Use the tools we already have. Declare the southern border a national security emergency. Establish temporary military tribunals for triage. Process asylum claims swiftly outside the clogged court system. Restore “Remain in Mexico” so that the border is no longer a remote court room. Appoint more immigration judges, assign them to high-volume areas, and hold streamlined hearings that still respect due process.

That’s not authoritarian. That’s leadership.

The path forward

Trump is not trying to destroy habeas corpus. He’s trying to save it from being twisted into a self-destructive parody of itself. Leftists have turned due process into delay, justice into gridlock, and they’re dragging the entire country into their chaos.

It’s time to draw the line. Protect habeas corpus. Use it lawfully. Use it wisely. And yes — use it to restore order at the border. Because if we lose that firewall, we lose the republic.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Betrayal of trust: Medicare insurers face lawsuit over kickback scheme

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Editor's note: This article is sponsored by Chapter.

The U.S. government has filed a major lawsuit under the False Claims Act, targeting some of the biggest names in health insurance—Aetna, Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), and Humana—along with top insurance brokers eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote. The allegation? From 2016 to at least 2021, these companies funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to brokers to steer seniors into their Medicare Advantage plans.

If the allegations are true, it means many Americans may have been steered into Medicare Advantage plans that weren’t necessarily the best fit for their needs—not because the plans were better, but because brokers were incentivized by illegal kickbacks.

The Kickback Conspiracy

Navigating Medicare Advantage’s maze of plan options is daunting, so beneficiaries rely on brokers like eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote, who claim to be unbiased guides. But from 2016 to 2021, insurers Aetna, Humana, and Elevance Health allegedly paid brokers millions in kickbacks to favor their plans, regardless of quality. Disguised as “co-op” or “marketing” deals, these payments were tied to enrollment targets. Internal emails revealed executives knew this violated the Anti-Kickback Statute, with one eHealth leader joking that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would miss a $15 million Humana deal for minimal enrollments. Brokers used call routing to prioritize high-paying insurers, betraying beneficiaries’ trust.

Discrimination Against the Vulnerable

The scheme wasn’t just about profits—it targeted vulnerable beneficiaries. Medicare Advantage must accept all eligible enrollees, including disabled people under 65. Yet Aetna and Humana allegedly pressured brokers to limit their enrollment, as these beneficiaries were deemed to be less profitable. Brokers complied, rejecting referrals and filtering calls to favor healthier enrollees, incentivized by bonuses. This violated federal anti-discrimination laws and CMS contracts, undermining the founding principles of Medicare by discriminating against the very people it was created to aid.

False Claims and the Pursuit of Justice

The schemes led to false claims to CMS, with insurers certifying enrollments as “valid” despite kickbacks and discrimination. The government paid billions, unaware of the fraud. Examples include Humana’s $12,477 for a 2016 enrollment and Aetna’s $79,047 for a 2020 case. On May 1, 2025, the U.S. filed suit, seeking treble damages and penalties under the False Claims Act. Aetna and others deny the allegations, per May 2025 reports, promising a fierce defense. The case, demanding a jury trial, seeks justice for beneficiaries and taxpayers.

POLL: Are foreign hackers behind 2025 bridge crash?

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A Mexican Navy ship crashing into the Brooklyn Bridge has left the nation stunned, and Glenn is demanding answers.

Are recent devastating ship collisions—first Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024, now Brooklyn in 2025—really just accidents, or is something far more sinister at play? Glenn recently warned that these incidents, both involving foreign vessels losing power near critical U.S. infrastructure, could be “shark bumps” by foreign adversaries testing our defenses through cyber sabotage. With the government and media quick to dismiss concerns, Glenn is calling for urgent investigations into possible hacking, independent audits of our ports and bridges, and a serious look at whether our enemies are exploiting vulnerabilities in our digitized systems.

Glenn wants to know what you think: Are these crashes coincidental, or are we under attack? Let us know in the poll below:

Could the recent ship crashes into American bridges be the result of cyber attacks by foreign adversaries?

Should the US government investigate these incidents for possible foreign interference?

Is our critical infrastructure adequately protected from cyber threats?

Are you concerned that foreign adversaries might be targeting US infrastructure through cyber means?

Do you think the media and government are properly addressing the security concerns raised by these incidents?

Glenn: Tapper reveals Dems’ Biden health fraud

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Top Democrats knew Biden’s health was deteriorating but covered it up to keep power. Jake Tapper’s book finally lifts the lid on their deception.

Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s new book confirms what we suspected all along: Joe Biden’s health was rapidly declining, and the Democratic Party establishment knew it. Rather than be honest with the American people, they chose to cover it up, to prop up Biden just long enough to survive the election cycle. And the media helped them do it.

For years, any mention of Biden’s cognitive decline was framed as a “right-wing smear,” a baseless conspiracy theory. But now, Tapper and Thompson reveal that Biden’s top aides privately discussed the need for a wheelchair after the election — because the man can hardly walk.

We had no functioning president for much of the past administration.

And while Biden’s closest aides were planning that, they and their allies in the press were publicly spinning the fantasy that Joe Biden’s halting gait was due to a heroic foot fracture from a dog-related incident four years ago. They said his frailty was due to his “vigor.” That’s not a joke. That’s a quote.

And while they said this, they were having special shoes made for him with custom-made soles to help him stand. They weren’t planning for a second term. They were planning how to prop him up — literally — just long enough to survive the election. That is a cover-up.

It doesn’t bother me that Biden might need a wheelchair. What bothers me — what should bother every American — is that his aides talked about hiding it until after the election.

Biden wasn’t leading

Needing a wheelchair in your 80s is not a moral failing. It’s human. I own President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair — it sits in my museum. That chair represents the strength and resilience of a man who, despite paralysis, led this nation through World War II against a dictator who was gassing the disabled and infirm. He hid his disability out of fear the public wouldn’t accept a leader who couldn’t walk. But he led.

Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images

But Joe Biden wasn’t leading. He was a puppet played by faceless swamp creatures whose only concern was maintaining their iron grip on power.

Whatever you think of Tapper, the book reveals the chilling reality that we had no functioning president for much of Biden’s administration. Our commander-in-chief wasn’t just aging — he was declining. And the people around him — government employees, funded by your tax dollars — weren’t honest with you. They lied to you repeatedly and willfully because the truth would have guaranteed a second Trump term. That’s what this was all about.

Who signed the pardons?

Consider the implications of this revelation. We had a president signing documents he didn’t read — or even know about. We had an autopen affixing his name to executive actions. Who operated that autopen? Who decided what got signed or who got pardoned? Who was in charge while the president didn’t even know what he was doing?

Those are not minor questions. That is the stuff of a constitutional crisis.

The problem isn’t Biden’s age. The problem is that the people you elected didn’t run the country. You were governed by unelected aides covering up your elected president’s rapid cognitive decline. You were fed a lie — over and over again. And if anyone tried to blow the whistle, they got buried.

Don’t get distracted by the wheelchair. The chair itself is not the scandal. The scandal is that people inside your government didn’t want you to know about it.

They made a bet: Lie until November, and deal with the fallout later. That is an insult to the American people — and a threat to the republic itself. Because if your government can lie about who’s running the country, what else are they lying about?

We need further investigation and to hold these crooks accountable. If we don’t, it will happen over and over again.