More fantasy-based policymaking from Obama. He says that the Free Syrian Army will provide the ground troops to fight the Islamic State. He (and everyone else in Washington) ignores the fact that the Free Syrian Army is working with the Islamic State. “Obama to Present Case for Broader U.S. Mission Against Militants,” by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, New York Times, September 7, 2014:
President Obama will use a speech to the nation on Wednesday to make his case for launching a United States-led offensive against Sunni militants gaining ground in the Middle East, seeking to rally support for a broad military mission while reassuring the public he is not plunging American forces into another Iraq war.
“I’m preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, Mr. Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“What I want people to understand,” he said, “is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum” of the militants. “We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities; we’re going to shrink the territory that they control; and, ultimately, we’re going to defeat them,” he added….
The president was adamant that he had no intention of sending American combat troops to go after ISIS, repeating no fewer than three times during the interview that he would not do so, and calling the idea of putting United States boots on the ground “a profound mistake.”
“This is not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops,” Mr. Obama said. “This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.”…
In the interview on Sunday, Mr. Obama said he envisioned the Free Syrian Army’s providing the ground presence needed to confront ISIS in Syria. He said that until a moderate Sunni opposition emerged, there was no real hope of ousting President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. But the opposition has been fractured, and the moderate militias are viewed as far less capable than ISIS.
“Our attitude towards Assad continues to be that through his actions, through using chemical weapons on his own people, dropping barrel bombs that killed innocent children, that he has foregone legitimacy,” Mr. Obama said. “But when it comes to our policy and the coalition that we’re putting together, our focus specifically is on ISIL.” (ISIL is the name used by administration officials for the militant group.)…
Here is the reality Obama is ignoring: “U.S.-Backed Free Syrian Army Operating Openly with ISIS, Al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra,” by Patrick Poole, PJ Media, September 3, 2014:
As the Obama administration struggles to address the threat from ISIS and plans to go to Congress in the coming weeks to up its commitment against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, multiple media reports indicate that the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) is operating openly with ISIS and other designated terrorist groups. And yet financial and military support for the FSA is the keystone to the administration’s policy in Syria….
Another practical problem developed with providing weapons to the FSA. As soon as weapons shipments from the CIA were arriving in Syria, the FSA weapons caches were being raided by jihadist groups, including ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the official al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, under very suspicious circumstances. The problem got so bad that by last December, both the U.S. and the UK had stopped weapons shipments to the FSA.But by April of this year, the Obama adminstration’s CIA weapons spigot was turned back on, with the FSA now receiving heavy weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. And in late June, President Obama asked Congress for $500 million to arm and train the FSA….
Uri says
Finally, a leader that follows Robert Spencer’s advice against shedding blood for the enemy of our enemy.
Beagle says
I missed the time RS advocated arming the friends of our enemies who fight our alleged friends and enemies depending on which side of a nonexistent border they exist.
Time will tell. This is a question of fact which will be resolved in the upcoming week, months, and years. If I’m wrong I will learn from it an adapt. If you’re wrong you will continue saying the same things over and over ad infinitum ad nauseum.
Jay Boo says
Obama not sending in a bunch of US troops into the middle of this mess is fine.
But note also in the article:
“Here is the reality Obama is ignoring: “U.S.-Backed Free Syrian Army Operating Openly with ISIS, Al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra,” by Patrick Poole, PJ Media, September 3, 2014:”
Ashley says
Meanwhile…http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/07/obama-meet-the-press-interview/15226551/
John says
The statements that Obama made in 2009 when he spoke in Egypt and Turkey and said, “the United States is not at war with Islam and never will be at war with Islam”, defines the Obama Doctrine. This doctrine explains his hedging against going to war with an entity called the Islamic State. His hesitation also defines where his lies begin and his commitment ends. Do not believe his lies for he is not committed to the defense of the United States. He is most definitively committed to Islam.
Brazooka says
This is going to work out really well, just like when Libyans were trusted to protect Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Jovial Joe says
This is as messed-up a conflict as I can ever recall. It is appropriate to consider the Syrian conflict a proxy war between the West and Putin, the latter from the beginning having wanted to preserve Russia’s only warm-water port in Syria. But ISIS have come out against Putin due to Chechnya etc. and the US are undoubtedly going to reach an accommodation with him in order to uproot ISIS from Raqqa. I just can’t see how all the pieces will fall at the end of this but I suspect we will see a new drawing of the map with the world powers inevitably determining the outcome again; a division this time drawn along sectarian lines – a Sunni state incorporating Syria and Western Iraq, Kurdistan to the north and a Shia Iraq to the south.
tpellow says
“Geert Wilders: ‘War Has Been Declared against Us.’
A Speech in the Netherlands Parliament”
by Geert Wilders.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4674/geert-wilders-speech
cliffface says
Clearly Obama sees the US defence department as his own personal army in his own personal battle against the Shia and Alawites and anyone else who is not Sunni.
Interesting.
Explains why he is trying to abandon the Jews and start wars with Russia and China.
Philip Smeeton says
Have to change the name of this web site to Obama Watch- workin’ towards the establishment of the United Islamic States of America.
Angemon says