Obama: 'We don't yet have a complete strategy' against ISIS

[mystery-ak]

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/244272-obama-we-dont-yet-have-a-compete-strategy-against-isis

 By Jordan Fabian - 06/08/15 11:00 AM EDT

President Obama said Monday the United States does not have a complete plan to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), saying Baghdad needs to show a greater commitment to building a fighting force.

“We don’t yet have a complete strategy,” Obama told reporters during a news conference at the G7 summit in Germany.

Obama’s comments are a surprising admission nine months into the U.S.-led coalition’s campaign against the terror group.

Earlier on Monday, the president pledged ramped-up assistance to Iraqi forces during a meeting with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has pleaded with coalition partners for more military and intelligence backing.

The president said the Pentagon is working on a plan to speed up the flow of weapons and training for Iraqi forces to keep pace with ISIS fighters, who have made recent gains, including taking the key city of Ramadi.

But Obama also called on the Iraqi leader to do more to recruit fighters to government forces and Sunni militias fighting ISIS extremists.

“What is fair to say is that all the countries in the international coalition are prepared to do more to train Iraqi security forces if they feel that additional work is taken advantage of,” he said.

Obama said the Pentagon has yet to submit a "finalized" plan "because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place."

"The details of that are not yet worked out."

[mystery-ak]

All I can say is OMG!

[mountaineer]

As guest host Mark Steyn just observed on Rush's show, ISIS sure as heck has a strategy against us.

[aligncare]

Obama's real strength is in his ability to limit global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius.

God is impressed.

[truth_seeker]

An unbiased observer might conclude, that as fast as the US provides weapons and Humvees, the Iraqi forces throw them down and abandon the weapons and Humvees, and run away.

These places were NOT unified countries 100 years ago. Biden could well have been right, when he said divide Iraq into three parts.

I know, I know. To properly play the roles of conservatives, one must knee jerk oppose anything Biden says or does.

[DCPatriot]

[truth_seeker]

In the olde dayes, when America won wars that remained won, we targeted combatants, but would settle for hitting anybody from the enemy side.

Today, when we cannot get wars to stay won, we try to avoid hitting anybody, lest we hit an innocent civilian from the enemy side.

Then if we have POWs, we release them to commit terror again.

Dazed and confused is supposed to be the condition of the enemy, but it seems to be the condition of America's leadership.

[andy58-in-nh]

The only strategy we need is one of hunting down and killing as many of these savages as we can, while targeting the places and people who harbor them. It would be wonderful if we could accomplish our goals with air power alone, but we cannot.  At some point, we are going to need ground-based forces to provide command, control, communications and intelligence as well as to engage the enemy.
 
A real President would build a coalition of forces to destroy ISIS as a transcendental threat to civilization, accomplish the job, leave behind a more or less stable country with Americans mostly in an advisory capacity to train local armies and keep the peace.
 
Oh yeah... we had such a President and already did all that - until President Selfie blew it all up.

[PzLdr]

As the T-shirt from back in the day stated:

                                          "Kill 'em All! Let God sort 'em Out!"

[Free Vulcan]

An unbiased observer might conclude, that as fast as the US provides weapons and Humvees, the Iraqi forces throw them down and abandon the weapons and Humvees, and run away.

These places were NOT unified countries 100 years ago. Biden could well have been right, when he said divide Iraq into three parts.

I know, I know. To properly play the roles of conservatives, one must knee jerk oppose anything Biden says or does.

I absolutely agreed with him. Even though the Shiiite area would likely absorb into Iran at some point, Kurdistan IMO would be a stable state, leaving the Sunni part to be boxed in enough to do little harm even on the chance it would merge with Syria.

[240B]

He does not care. This is another Obama Kabuki dance. I'm not sure and would not say that he 'supports' ISIS, but I would have not problem saying that he is ambivalent to them.

Obama thrives on chaos, confusion, and discord. ISIS serves his designs.