What an interesting confluence of events, even while the President was in Orlando attempting to comfort shattered American lives.

Event number one was CIA Director, John Brennan, warning the Senate Intelligence Committee  that Mr. Obama is failing in Syria and Iraq, that U.S. led efforts have not slowed ISIS,  and that the terror group is undoubtedly working up a variety of new methods to smuggle their people into the west.

At the same time, CNN International continues to report that ISIS is being forced to retreat from its former stronghold in Falluja, being beaten back by US-aligned Iraqi forces.  This and other media reports appear to contradict Mr. Brennan’s report to the Congress.  There is also a statement from the President just a few weeks ago, when he said,“…our coalition is on the offensive. ISIL is on the defensive, and ISIL is going to lose.” 

It’s fascinating to see such a vast gap in opinion between the media, the White House and the CIA.   In this case at least,  media reports appear to side with the President.   US-supported forces are making progress against ISIS, even while the CIA Director insists that the glass is half-empty.

Event number two, was Senator John McCain, making the outrageous comment that President Obama, was somehow directly responsible for the mass shooting in Orlando, even though there is no confirmation that the shooter was anything other than a madman, with no direct link to ISIS.

Event number three is this morning’s New York Times article with information said to have been “leaked” by an official from the State Department to the effect that “More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war.”    Kinda feels like an attempted strike three, doesn’t it, with all three pitches against the Administration coming in such rapid succession?

It’s probably all coincidental though, with no evidence that all three events were in any way coordinated by those on the right who prefer more and not less war in the Middle East and North Africa, and who, again coincidentally, are all deeply invested in the Republican Party.   A body threatened by implosion as it attempts to draw attention away from the inane ravings of its presidential candidate while struggling to tamp down that same candidate’s out-of-control rhetoric going forward, his statements including the bizarre implication that the President of the United States may be an ISIS sympathizer.

Surely, it’s all nothing but coincidence.