Thursday, August 28, 2014

Disarray In The White House Is The Reason Why President Obama Backed Off From Ordering Military Strikes Against ISIS In Syria

President Barack Obama talks with staff during a meeting in the Oval Office, Aug. 28, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Why Obama Backed Off More ISIS Strikes: His Own Team Couldn’t Agree On A Syria Strategy -- Eli Lake and Josh Rogin, Daily Beast

After lots of bluster about striking ISIS on Syria, President Obama threw cold water on the idea Thursday, disappointing those who wanted him to take the fight to ISIS in Syria.

After a week of talk of eliminating the "cancer" of ISIS, President Obama said Thursday that he was not planning to significantly expand the war against the Islamic extremist movement anytime soon.

His remarks came after days of heated debate inside the top levels of his own national security bureaucracy about how, where, and whether to strike ISIS in Syria. But those deliberations – which included a bleak intelligence assessment of America's potential allies in Syria -- failed to produce a consensus battle plan. And so Obama, who has long been reluctant to enter into the Syrian conflict, told reporters Thursday that “we don’t have a strategy yet” for confronting ISIS on a regional level.

Read more ....

My Comment: The contradictions that are coming out of this White House on what needs to be done in confronting The Islamic State is shocking to see. I understand that every administration will have disagreements .... but to see this confusion at this level on what needs to be done with The Islamic State .... and all in the past week .... you have to wonder on what is happening in the Situation Room when they are discussing on what needs to be done in this crisis.

Update:
Wow .... President Obama's supporters in the media are now openly starting to question his foreign policy AND his leadership ..... Obama must answer: Are we at war with the Islamic State? -- Eugene Robinson (Washington Post)

4 comments:

kabud said...

Well, it would be stupid if the Main strategic center in the world would be explaining the strategy to the `newsmen` or any one for that matter. The only strategy that works is the one your opponent can never figure out.
--
Great Blog, Wayne recommended.

War News Updates Editor said...

True Kabud .... but someone in the White House is not happy .... otherwise why would they be leaking this story.

James said...

Well WNU,
I must admit it's been a long time since I've read an article such as this. If even 1/3 of it is true whoa baby! I noticed one thing in the description of the main two opposing camps both had "some" military and intelligence officials, not "the" Military or "the" Intelligence community. Then the article goes on to a somewhat detailed description of divisions in the Intel community, but nothing about the military. Most interesting.

By the way, his suit was fantastic!
Also, upon news of Kerry's imminent arrival, ISIS has started a head long retreat into Syria and southern Iraq.

War News Updates Editor said...

I like posting stories from Eli lake and Josh Rogin. They both have good sources (I suspect within the intel community) who are always feeding them information.

And yes about the suit .... makes me wonder if I should get one like that.