Obama says does not yet have broad strategy for Islamic State

Yahoo News ^ | 28 Aug 2014 | Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle

[mandaladon]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he has not yet developed a broad strategy for confronting Islamic State in an acknowledgement that he has not decided whether to launch air strikes against the militant group in Syria.

"We don't have a strategy yet," Obama told a White House news conference ahead of meeting top national security advisers in the Situation Room about how to proceed against Islamic State.

Obama, who shied away from launching airstrikes in Syria a year ago to punish Syrian President Bashir al-Assad for use of chemical weapons against his own people, has been reticent about getting involved in Syria's civil war, where he believes there are few good options for the United States to pursue. Obama's decision to begin U.S. surveillance flights over Syria earlier this week prompted speculation that he was on the brink of expanding the fight against Islamic State from Iraq into Syria, prompting criticism from some lawmakers who worry they have not been properly consulted.

There has been a growing call from both Republicans and Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress for lawmakers to vote on whether the United States should broaden its action against the Islamic State.

[piytar]

Kill them. That is the strategy.

Oh, Obama does not want to have the US military kill his brothers in arms? Yup, we don’t have a strategy.

[piytar]

Correct. He has many strategies to CREATE those problems, though.

And they are working.

[fhayek]

I didn't say that he did not have a strategy, I said that he did not have a strategy to deal with problems facing this nation. Look, what is a president's mandate? Enhance the security of the country, maintain order, husband the prudent spending of the taxpayer dollar, promote prosperity (admittedly indirectly), and influence social discourse, to some degree. It is NOT to fundamentally change the social and political structure of this country. That is something that needs to happen a level higher than the presidency, at the constitutional level. The fact of the matter is that Obama has little interest in the actual duties of the president, but prefers to dabbles in matters best left to committees of individuals in all of the various states. As a result, the state of actually running the country is profoundly neglected.

[chiefqc]

But he had those vacations, golfing, parties and fund raiser to plan for, for heavens sake he can’t do every thing - oh wait we are talking about mac, yellow streak, daddy, never mind it is to be expected.

[tinyowl]

Dear ISIS, please continue at will. It will be a while before we get around to getting around to thinking about a broad, general strategy for looking into a broad strategy to write you a letter stating that we are very angry with you and are thinking about developing a strategy to express that anger TO you, in a letter writ in ink, with a pen. And a phone. And we will deliver this letter to you, on a day or our choosing, and in a manner that you receive it, and at a broad time.

Folks should make no mistake.

BO

[RetiredTexasVet]

Oh yes he does. He will fiddle with his reggie until it’s too late to do anything meaningful.

[parmamenian]

I bet he’s already strategized his picks for next year’s NCAA basketball tournament!