NBC’s War Correspondent Calls Bullshit On Obama’s Claims Of “Progress” Against ISIS
By Robert Gehl, January 21, 2015.
NBC News’ Richard Engel called bullshit on President Obama’s assertion last night that ISIS is on the run, that his leadership is “stopping ISIS’s advance” and Obama’s entire strategy.
Speaking to Rachel Maddow (which makes it even better), the chief foreign correspondent for NBC said the President’s declarations don’t even reflect reality.
Speaking after Obama’s State of the Union address on MSNBC, Engel said:
“[Obama] said at one stage that American leadership – including our military power – is stopping ISIL’s advance. It didn’t look that way in Paris, it looked like ISIS was doing well. It didn’t look that way with this new video that was released today with the Japanese hostages. It doesn’t look that way in Syria. ISIS is doing very well. The strategies is completely disjointed. So to sell that as success I think was missing the point. Maybe even disingenuous. Instead, he said of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition to degrade and destroy ISIS. First of all, 80 percent or more of the airstrikes that are taking place now are by the U.S. and the U.S. is getting drawn back into a ground war.”
Earlier on NBC News, Engel said about the same thing:
Engel knows what he’s talking about. He is one of the few journalists to throw the cold water of reality on Obama’s foreign policy declarations. One of the best war correspondents in the news today, NBC routinely turns to him after the President declares success in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or against ISIS or al-Qaeda. Here’s how it usually goes:
NBC News Anchor: “Obama today said his foreign policy is working in Iraq.”
Cut to Obama: “My foreign policy is working in Iraq.”
Anchor: Now to Richard Engel, IN IRAQ.
Engel: “Bullshit.”
http://downtrend.com/robertgehl/nbcs-war-correspondent-calls-bullshit-on-obamas-claims-of-progress-against-isis/
