A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 63% of conservative Republicans and 61% of all Republicans support President Obama’s decision to launch the airstrikes in Iraq. By comparison, 54% of Democrats and 49% of independents also sign off on the use of force.

Americans overall support the action 54% to 39%.

First Read: “Well, that didn’t take long. Less than 48 hours after The Atlantic published Hillary Clinton’s critical comments about Obama’s foreign policy, she walked them back. Spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement that Clinton called the president to ‘make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him, his policies, or his leadership,’ adding that the two will ‘hug it out’ in Martha’s Vineyard tonight. As we’ve noted, Clinton’s always been more hawkish than the president, but the handling of the interview and this apology just seem like more politically head-scratching decisions as she continues her book tour. The bottom line: This is not the first time Clinton and Obama are going to have a public split as Democrats transition from one standard-bearer to another. But is every one of those moments going to be as tortured as this one?”

Morning Line notes “get ready to see a whole lot more of this dance over the next two years.”

Obama adviser David Axelrod hit back at Hillary Clinton in the wake of her comments rejecting President Obama’s self-stated foreign policy principle, “Don’t do stupid stuff.”

Just to clarify: “Don’t do stupid stuff” means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) August 12, 2014

Bill Etheridge, from Britain’s UK Independence Party, told youth activists that they should look to Adolf Hitler for public speaking tips because he was a “magnetic and forceful public speaker” who “achieved a great deal,” the Daily Mail reports.

Said Etheridge: “Look back to the most magnetic and forceful public speaker possibly in history. When Hitler gave speeches, and many of the famous ones were at rallies, at the start he walks, back and forth, looked at people — there was a silence, he waited minutes just looking out at people, fixing them with his gaze. They were looking back and he would do it for a while. And then they were so desperate for him to start, when he started speaking they were hanging on his every word.”

In an interview with The Atlantic, Hillary Clinton told The Atlantic that the President Obama’s lack of assistance to Syrian rebels led to the rise of ISIS in Iraq.

She also criticized the foreign-policy doctrine which he recently coined as, “Don’t do stupid shit.”

Said Clinton: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.”

“I predicted what was going to happen in Iraq. And I’m predicting to you now, that if we pull everybody out of Afghanistan, not based on conditions, you’ll see that same movie again in Afghanistan.”

— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in an interview on CNN, in which he slammed President Obama’s foreign policy.

“President Obama said on Saturday that the airstrikes and humanitarian assistance drops he ordered last week in Iraq could go on for months, preparing Americans for an extended military presence in the skies there as Iraq’s leaders try to build a new government,” the New York Times reports.

Said Obama: “I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem in weeks. This is going to be a long-term project.”

“The president repeated his insistence that his administration would not send ground troops back to Iraq after ending an unpopular, decade-long war and withdrawing the last troops in 2011. But two days after emphasizing the limited scope of the mission in a White House address, he pledged that the United States would stand with Iraq if it could form a unified and inclusive government to counter the Sunni militants who threaten its future.”

New York Times: “With American diplomats and business people in Erbil suddenly at risk, at the American Consulate and elsewhere, Mr. Obama began a series of intensive deliberations that resulted, only a day later, in his authorizing airstrikes on the militants, as well as humanitarian airdrops of food and water to the besieged Iraqis.”

“Looming over that discussion, and the decision to return the United States to a war Mr. Obama had built his political career disparaging, was the specter of an earlier tragedy: the September 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and has become a potent symbol of weakness for critics of the president.”

First Read: “The man who won the presidency in 2008 because he opposed the Iraq war and then ended it now finds himself facing this dilemma: Once you’re back in, how do you get out? That very dilemma, according our reporting, was precisely why President Obama until yesterday hadn’t committed U.S. force against the militant Sunni group ISIS, even as many in the intel community and on his own national security staff were urging him to act sooner. The fear: You get in even incrementally, and it’s hard to get out. Because how do you STOP helping if the initial help doesn’t work? But Obama’s main calculus changed yesterday when he announced the authorization of force — because ISIS is on the march against the Kurds in Erbil. And if you lose the Kurds, you lose Iraq.”

The New York Times reports the United States began airstrikes in Iraq.

President Obama and his top aides “believe they are putting in place a new global security structure that will frame international relations for decades. Every day, however, brings a split-screen contrast between the White House’s confidence in its long-term strategy and the daily chaos playing out from Ukraine to the Middle East,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The disconnect is reflected in the president’s declining poll ratings. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week shows Americans’ approval of his foreign-policy record at a new low of 36%.”

“I think they’re an important ally, but I also think that their per capita income is greater than probably three-fourths of the rest of the world. Should we be giving free money or welfare to a wealthy nation? I don’t think so.”

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview with ABC News in 2011, on aid to Israel.

“I haven’t really proposed that in the past. We’ve never had a legislative proposal to do that. You can mistake my position, but then I’ll answer the question. That has not been a position–a legislative position–we have introduced to phase out or get rid of Israel’s aid.”

— Paul, quoted by Yahoo News today.

“Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel,” the AP reports.

“Sources familiar with conversations between Netanyahu and senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say the Israeli leader advised the Obama administration ‘not to ever second guess me again’ on the matter. The officials also said Netanyahu said he should be ‘trusted’ on the issue and about the unwillingness of Hamas to enter into and follow through on cease-fire talks.”

“Anyone who has made even a passing glance at the Israeli media in the past few days will have noticed the incredible chorus of criticism being directed at John Kerry right now. The secretary of state has been lambasted by all sides for his apparent failure in attempts to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas,” the Washington Post reports.

Daily Beast: “The resumption of violence was the latest example of just how disconnected Kerry’s whirlwind diplomatic efforts have been from the combatants he’s trying to get to stop fighting. The Israeli government has been particularly vocal in its criticism of Kerry’s peacemaker attempts. But in the Palestinian camps, there has been public discontent, too.”

“Hamas militants are attempting to negotiate a new arms deal with North Korea for missiles and communications equipment that will allow them to maintain their offensive against Israel,” the Daily Telegraph reports.

“Security officials say the deal between Hamas and North Korea is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and is being handled by a Lebanese-based trading company with close ties to the militant Palestinian organization based in east Beirut.”

“After failing to win a deal to end fighting in Gaza last week, Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to salvage Plan B: a succession of temporary cease-fires that he hopes might yet open the door to Israeli and Palestinian negotiations for a long-term solution,” the New York Times reports.

“On Sunday, however, Mr. Kerry was having difficulty accomplishing even that, despite a phone call in which President Obama, in a sign of mounting impatience, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to embrace an ‘immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire’ while the two sides pursued a more lasting agreement… Israel and Hamas seem to be dug in this time, with Israeli officials appearing dismissive of Mr. Kerry’s push for a weeklong cease-fire in a way that few American secretaries of state have faced.”

New York Times: “Taliban fighters are scoring early gains in several strategic areas near the capital this summer, inflicting heavy casualties and casting new doubt on the ability of Afghan forces to contain the insurgency as the United States moves to complete its withdrawal of combat troops, according to Afghan officials and local elders.”

“The Taliban have found success beyond their traditional strongholds in the rural south and are now dominating territory near crucial highways and cities that surround Kabul, the capital, in strategic provinces like Kapisa and Nangarhar. Their advance has gone unreported because most American forces have left the field and officials in Kabul have largely refused to talk about it.”

“In an intensely awkward congressional hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, freshman Rep. Curt Clawson (R-FL) misidentified two senior U.S. government officials as representatives of the Indian government,” Foreign Policy reports.

Said Clawson: “I’m familiar with your country; I love your country. Anything I can do to make the relationship with India better, I’m willing and enthusiastic about doing so.”

A video of the exchange is cringe-worthy.

[Read more…]

BBC: “Iran has turned all of its enriched uranium closest to the level needed to make nuclear arms into more harmless forms, the UN nuclear agency says. The conversion of its stock of 20%-enriched uranium was part of a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme. The US said last week it would unblock $2.8bn in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran’s compliance. A four-month extension to talks on Iran’s nuclear ambitions was agreed on Friday between Iran and world powers.”