War On Terror: Top brass — both now serving and retired — say that President Obamas strategy is likely to fail against the Islamic State. Clearly he has put his presidential legacy before our national security. Two weeks after his inauguration in 2009, the president visited second graders at Washingtons Capital City Public Charter School and told the kids, Youre excellent listeners! Mr. Obama, sadly, is not an excellent listener. But he does appreciate excellent listeners, like those second-graders — and the sycophants who work in his White House cocoon, as columnist Charles Krauthammer recently put it in a Hugh Hewitt radio interview. Theres now a growing rift between a commander-in-chief wedded to his peacenik political base and those he commands, because he wont listen to military experts. • Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the U.S. Army and the former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said Friday that reinforcements to the 1,600 U.S. troops currently deployed in Iraq may be needed. • Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testified last Tuesday that he, unlike Obama, is not ruling out U.S. ground forces if Obamas strategy of airstrikes and reliance on Iraqi and Kurd forces — and moderate Syrian rebels — fails, which is likely. • Even Gen. Lloyd Austin, whom Obama appointed as the first black man ever to be CENTCOM commander, has recommended combat troops. Then, as the Washington Post reported, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who served under Obama, on Thursday accused the president of tying the hands of the military by taking a major military option off the table, up front. Mattis added that it could backfire on us and actually strengthen our foes credibility. To top all that off, Obamas own first Defense secretary and a former Central Intelligence director, Robert Gates, told CBS last Wednesday, Theyre not gonna be able to be successful against ISIS strictly from the air or strictly depending on the Iraqi forces or the Peshmerga (Kurd fighters) or the Sunni tribes acting on their own. Gates added that in repeating that there wont be U.S. ground forces, Obama in effect, traps himself, because ground forces will be needed. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., an ex-Army captain who sits on the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, in a Friday MSNBC interview called Obamas a losing strategy. One reason: its reliance on Syrian rebels. The Syrian Revolutionary Front has reportedly made a non-aggression pact with the Islamic State. And as Al-Monitors Syrian correspondent reminds us, Corruption and ineptitude permeates most of the Syrian rebel factions designated as moderates, some of whom are war criminals. The president claims, Americans are united in confronting the threat from ISIL. But the public isnt united on his strategy; and they certainly wouldnt bet that something that our generals and a former secretary of defense and CIA director have no faith in will succeed. In that sense, it is President Obama who is out of step when it comes to confronting the IS threat. Get behind the generals, Mr. President. Read More At Investors Business Daily: news.investors/ibd-editorials/091914-718291-cocooned-obama-must-listen-to-generals-on-war-strategy.htm#ixzz3Do6sQfqq Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 00:18:49 +0000