Obama’s Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down

Last week, a top general revealed that only “four or five” fighters under the U.S.-backed Syrian rebel program were still on the battlefield. He is also said to be motivated by concern over the health of his wife, who has an autoimmune disorder. An official announcement is expected within weeks.

President Barack Obama’s new strategy, as ever, involves taking advantage of the situation on the ground in Syria instead of proactively influencing it. It also recognizes that Iraq is not the only front on which the battle against Islamic State must be carried out. “I have sympathy for the hard task he was given because I do not believe the president’s team was fully on board and he was never empowered to bring the leadership necessary to achieve the mission”.

Retired Gen. John Allen has been serving as the White House’s special envoy to the global coalition fighting against ISIS in Syria and Iraq since September 11, 2014. And now the Pentagon is investigating allegations by dozens of intelligence analysts that their reporting on the progress in the war effort was altered before being given to top officials.

The general was able to convince Turkey to allow the U.S.to use Incirlik Air Base during his time leading the US war effort against ISIS. Allen leaves behind an arguably more powerful and influential ISIS and a White House once again searching for a new strategy.

Initially trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in Jordan in 2012, the Takfiri militants have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations and crucifixions in areas under their control in Iraq, Syria and more recently Libya.

However, the timing of Allen’s resignation coincides with a series of setbacks for the White House’s anti-ISIS campaign.

“Where we were a year ago today, I wasn’t sure how it was going to unfold,” Allen said.

Last month, the nominee to lead the U.S. Marine Corps told the Senate Armed Services Committee said the war against ISIS was essentially a tie.

Allen has been frustrated with US policy for the past eight months, sources said, who added that he stayed in the position for six months longer than what he originally promised Secretary of State John Kerry.

Allen’s replacement is unclear, although it is likely at least some of his responsibilities will fall to his deputy, Ambassador Brett McGurk.

A suburb of Baghdad is now experiencing a wave of cholera, triggered by increasingly poor hygiene and depleted resources as the Iraqi government struggles to expand its control over territories coveted by the Islamic State terrorist group.