The United States has no strategy for fighting ISIS, according to our Commander In Chief, Barack Obama.
But what if the administration doesn’t want one?
Obama’s most visible and measurable promise when elected to office was a pledge to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to closing down the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp.
Most of these have or are close to being complete. Obama has scarcely one year left in office, much of which will be in lame duck status.
His current priorities show this – he’s valiantly pushing for one last gift for his corporate backers, in the form of the Trans Pacific Partnership, after which he’ll likely hit the golf course until November 2016.
But Obama isn’t the only administration official in his twilight years.
Also in the homestretch, of a 41-year U.S. Army career, is Gen. Martin Dempsey, the top military adviser to President Obama.
Allegedly out of fears of war, he counsels patience to the President.
Such counsel includes such wisdom as ‘Give the Iraqis more time to heal their internal divisions and fight their own battles.’
Resist the temptation to grab control of the contest against the Islamic State group.
An enduring victory will take more than military might; it will require a unified Iraq supported by neighbors.
“If we were to take control of this campaign, I mean literally seize control of the campaign, then there’s no doubt in my mind we would probably defeat ISIL on, let’s say, a faster timeline, but at some considerable cost to our young men and women in uniform,” he told U.S. troops Thursday in an aircraft hangar in Naples, Italy, which just so happens to be one of his last overseas trips before finishing his four-year tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Maybe ISIS goes away, maybe they’re defeated militarily, and two years from now another group with another name and another ideology … will just be back,” he said earlier that day.
Yet ISIS grows stronger by the day. As we profiled earlier, Libya, not Iraq, appears to be the most concerning area of ISIS operation, as dozens of terrorists stream into Europe each day, some of whom will eventually make their way to America.
And then there is the very real fact that ISIS is committing attrocities on a scale not seen since the holocaust of World War Two. United Nations estimates put their human rights abuses at over five million in the last year alone. They rape, pillage, destroy world heritage sites and conduct mass executions daily.
Yet while war crimes are committed and terrorists make their way to American soil, the Obama administration and its generals find well articulated reasons to do nothing.
It seems increasingly clear that its politics, not strategy, that are dictating the war against ISIS. Obama, his administration and its generals are attempting to run out the clock, preserve their legacies as ending wars not continuing them, and leaving the problem for the next administration.
But with over a year until a new administration takes office and some months after that before it can possibly formulate a strategy, it appears ISIS now has a two year window to build its empire and prepare terrorist attacks against the United States.
By not acting, Obama is leaving a selfish legacy of inaction and ineptness.
Which perhaps isn’t surprising, given his promises of hope, change and transparency were quickly neglected in favor of the Washington status quo.
Stay Connected
