Via Keith Koffler:

No, really. You’re not misreading the headline.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest Tuesday exculpated Obama’s Iraq strategy and instead blamed Iraqi leaders’ failure to integrate their armed forces for the dramatic loss of Ramadi to ISIS.

Earnest said:

What we have indicated all along is that it will require a multi-sectarian force to succeed against ISIL.  And the reason for that is Iraq is a very diverse country and they’re going to need every element of their diversity to counter this specific threat.

You’ll recall from even the earliest days of the military campaign that the support of the United States was predicated on the commitment of the Iraqi political leadership and the Iraqi military leadership governing and fighting in a multi-sectarian fashion.  And that was true at the beginning in terms of the air support that the United States was prepared to offer; that’s also been true in some of the successful military operations that Iraqi security forces have carried out.

Now, there’s some truth to his, like any bit of spin. It’s not unreasonable to question the commitment of Iraq’s largely Shiite force to defending Sunni areas like Ramadi its ability to relate to the local population. But this isn’t enough to explain the catastrophic failure of Obama’s policy.