Gates: Obama’s Strategy for Islamic State Needs to Be Intensified

The terrorist group has claimed responsibility for all three incidents.

Many members of both the American and the European intelligence and diplomatic apparatus say the chaos in Iraq and Syria is caused by Obama’s determination to press on with an “exit strategy” from the region, signalled by the withdrawal from Iraq. “It would take months and months, even if you decided you wanted to do it, to put the logistics in place, get the troops trained, and so on”, Gates continued.

The US military refuses to attack Islamic State trucks that carry stolen Iraqi and Syrian oil to Turkey, arguing that these are civilian targets, a prominent Iraqi politician said.

Since it is widely recognised that aerial bombardments alone can not defeat and destroy Daesh, since Western “boots on the ground” would be an avidly sought boon to Daesh and since the Sunni states of the region, which should logically fear Daesh more than any other states elsewhere, now show no interest whatsoever in deploying their own ground forces against fellow Sunnis, what are Western states to do?

“So we have a near-term problem that needs to be addressed, or a near-term challenge from ISIS that needs to be addressed”. What their goals are. “The Saudis are mostly anxious about Iran”.

His prior, oft-repeated, mantra that “Assad must go” was consigned to the memory hole, defeating and destroying Daesh became France’s urgent priority and he set out to pull together a “grand coalition” of all concerned states to achieve the defeat and destruction of Daesh – a worthy goal if it were possible.

“You’ve gotten a Iranian-influenced government in Baghdad and the notion that they would invite Saudi or Gulf State troops into their country to fight what is an internal fight in their eyes, I think is very unrealistic”, Gates said. But when I hear people talk about a completely different strategy, I don’t know what that is. “That’s just not going to happen”. Any time we have intelligence that may have been altered to fit a narrative that might be the narrative set by the White House is concerning to me.

“We need a president who will, in Lincoln’s terms, appeal to ‘the better angels of our nature, ‘” Gates said. We’ve got to stop talking about containment.