Posted on 12/07/2015 4:46:03 AM PST by HomerBohn
To its critics, President Obama's strategy to combat the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is weak and incoherent. Even some of the staunchest U.S. allies and partners in the fight worry that the time for what they see as the administration's incremental approach has long since passed.
The White House maintains that its strategy is comprehensive and that it's working. Sharp increases in airstrikes and Obama's recent decision to deploy Special Operations troops, officials say, are part of a fundamental change in the military's mission developed this fall, along with a new diplomatic push to end the distraction of Syria's civil war.
In his Sunday-night address to the nation following last week's San Bernardino, Calif., shooting, Obama outlined the elements of the strategy, assuring Americans that there is a viable plan underway to decimate the Islamic State where it lives. "We will destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us," he said, using an alternative name for the militants.
But the White House is clearly frustrated by its failure to communicate the elements of that plan and what it believes has been accomplished.
"Yes, there is a strategy," Secretary of State John F. Kerry snapped in a speech Saturday. "I know the criticism. We all hear them. . . . But that doesn't mean it's wisdom."
The administration's insistence that its prudence and patience will pay off -- vs. charges of too little, too late -- have been the two opposing narratives of the 18-month battle against the Islamic State and the four-year Syrian war it has now overshadowed.
An examination of the recent course of events on the military and diplomatic fronts and interviews with a broad range of stakeholders and experts provide fuel for both arguments.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
The problem is I am not sure who's side he's on, but if this is his idea of winning were screwed..
Didn’t work too well in San Bernardino, did it?
Along with being a JV team who are contained, he inspires confidence around the globe, no doubt.
Serious debate on traveling to Kurdistan on my own to conduct warfare.
Disqualified from official US Military service on BS medical reasons.
The risk is being bombed by NATO-friggin’Turkey.
“I have a plan”.........odumbo states.
I’m advised he’s not too good at golf either.
Not sure making the whole country a gun free zone is a plan that’s gonna let me sleep better at night.
Remember he recently explained he is against winning because it creates a loser, or something like that.
His plan is to invite all the terrorists to live among us so we can be all one big happy family until the day they kill us.
I wonder how I am at golf. Never ever played it.
I resent being lectured on tolerance by this puke. He says that our intolerance would be self-defeating. It’s that kind of sentiment that should make us all intolerant of Barack Obama.
I have been hearing this crap from liberals, socialist since 1972. It has nothing to do with substance. All about emotions, "feeling good" How many times have I heard them imply "I am smarter than you, you don't have all the facts, therefore I know whats right and good for you"
Hey Obama, this is not some high school event where all the participants get a trophy. In case you still have not figured it out, this is for keeps and tens of thousands of people are going to die.
I am. Not ours.
The best part is drinking beer and driving the golf cart.
Fine. First, articulate the strategy. That is, if you actually have one and if you actually know enough about these kinds of things to do so.
Second, list the objective measures by which you reason "it's working." Just having a sense or hope that it is working is not sufficient. If there is a strategy, and if it is working, there ought to be some quantifiable metric by which you can judge/claim this.
But the White House is clearly frustrated by its failure to communicate the elements of that plan and what it believes has been accomplished.
Perhaps this frustration is due to the apparent fact that nothing really has been accomplished. Of the stated goals, none have been reached, none have even been partially completed. The tactics employed, and even more importantly the things that have not been employed, call into question the actual strategy. Certainly we are more than capable of militarily defeating ISIS. The fact that not only have we not stomped them out of existence, but that they have grown, spread, and increased in capability... That leads one to the logical conclusion that the current "results" are in fact exactly what our muslim-in-chief wants. There is no denying that bammy is at least a muslim sympathizer. There is every indication he actually considers himself muslim. So it is extremely likely that he wants to see islam grow and spread, even by the figurative (and sometimes all too literal) sword of ISIS.
Yeh, right....Tell that to the Ca folks.
“the White House is clearly frustrated by its failure to communicate the elements of that plan and what it believes has been accomplished.”
His credibility, along with his belief system, is shot.
Any thoughts on why the podium? I have some, based on the fact that he never uses the desk for ANYTHING, obviously.
Looming over the audience, in his corrupted mind, seems to him like he is omnipotent.
Valeria Jarret, has a plan to defeat ISIS, and Obama has endorsed her plans....
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