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| Iraq |
| Pentagon Official: Obama's ISIS Strategy Is Doomed To Fail |
| 2014-09-12 |
| [Daily Caller] Joseph Miller is the pen name for a ranking Department of Defense official with a background in U.S. special operations and combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has worked in strategic planning. After weeks of back and forth, on Wednesday night President Barack Obama outlined his strategy for "degrading" and "destroying" the Islamic State, and on the 13th anniversary of 9/11, Americans were able to finally wake up in a country that had a strategy for the most recent Islamist threat. The problem is that the strategy -- to provide logistical support for Iraqi forces, limited air strikes, and a strong Free Syrian Army -- is a foolish strategy that is unlikely to succeed. Motion should not be confused with progress. Victory over radical Islam has never been the regime's the goal. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #9 Can't decide whether it would be a good or bad thing for country if the coalition failed to come together. Have to ponder that one. Leadership in the coalition countries don't trust Obama. He's been apathetic towards them or burned them too often. Incidents like Benghazi don't help the perception either--he didn't have the back of Americans. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-09-12 19:45 |
| #8 The insufferable James Carville opinined last night on O'Reilly that "we have been at war for the past thirteen years and would likely be at war for another thirteen years." I hate to admit it, but I suspect he's right. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-09-12 19:13 |
| #7 The leadership of the government can't agree on what it is we are doing with re/ISIS? Whether it's not a war or a war. It's difficult to mobilize a government and a nation behind a vague, nebulous concept. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-09-12 19:09 |
| #6 Pappy, that's the result of career managerial (peacetime oriented) rather than operational (war oriented) people running things at the three letter agencies. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-09-12 18:47 |
| #5 Unfortunately that's a skill that's atrophied. Also not a career enhancer - and that's what counts, right? Posted by Pappy 'Atrophied' possibly, 'hijacked' might be a more appropriate descriptor. Hijacked to feed the regimes drone zapping and media program. "I'm really good at killing people."BHO |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-09-12 17:32 |
| #4 Secondarily - you cannot defeat an insurgency from the air. It requires ground forces. It requires killing lots and lots of bad guys You also need good intel. You need people on the ground who can develop a network of informants and cultivate contacts. Who can be bought, who can be split off, who can 'accidentally' not have his forces where they're supposed to be, etc. Unfortunately that's a skill that's atrophied. Also not a career enhancer - and that's what counts, right? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2014-09-12 17:26 |
| #3 "Lets look at the record" |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-09-12 16:04 |
| #2 Free Syrian Army is a mirage. Its an illusion that State desperately believes in, lest they realize there is no effective command structure in the region, and that few, if any, of the "players" in Syria would ever be considered "good" when viewed on their own merits. Again, Obama believes everything the State Dept tells him and ignores anything the military tells him, due to his inherent anti-military leftist bias. Secondarily - you cannot defeat an insurgency from the air. It requires ground forces. It requires killing lots and lots of bad guys. It involves making the terrorist supporting communities howl while keeping the anti-terr folks safe - and most of all it demands a long term commitment in order to be effective. The military is capable of this - but the political leadership is not. Bush had the heart for the long war, but not the competence to lead the country into supporting the necessity of it. Obama has neither, and additionally lacks the basic competence and capabilities needed to lead anything more than a domestic political campaign. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2014-09-12 15:02 |
| #1 Too little, too late. Plus no one trusts Obama, either here or abroad. He exceeded his level of competence long ago if he ever had any competence. Maybe he should have been tried as an Ambassador to Liberia or Sierra Leone before being thrown into the presidency. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-09-12 11:04 |