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Obama Does Have A Strategy, And It’s Awful
Townhall.com ^ | August 31, 2014 | Derek Hunter

Posted on 08/31/2014 4:01:48 AM PDT by Kaslin

On Thursday, President Obama told the world he didn’t yet have a strategy for dealing with the Islamic Front in Syria. Although it’s never good to let an army who beheads your citizens and is hell-bent on your destruction know you don’t know how to deal with them – yet, or otherwise – Josh Earnest, the president’s press secretary “clarified” his comments the next day. We do have a plan, it turns out. And the plan is awful.

Before we dive into the new statements, let’s take a look back at some older ones.

Back in January, when talking about terrorism, President Obama told the New Yorker magazine, “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.”

The terrorist group making the biggest waves at the time was ISIS. Was the president referring to ISIS as part of a “jayvee team?” It went relatively unnoticed by the mainstream media then. But in the eight months since, ISIS has become the little jayvee team that could. It has taken over a landmass the size of Indiana – and growing. It has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and amassed a fortune to fund its continued terror campaign.

But our posture toward this outfit has not changed.

When ISIS beheaded American journalists James Foley and posted the video on the Internet, the media remembered the quote and asked about it. Earnest went on to claim the president wasn’t talking about ISIS, just other groups, and that the White House always has taken the ISIS threat seriously.

That claim, on its face, would be insignificant, perhaps even believable, were it not for the president’s statement Thursday. If, as the White House now insists, it always has taken the threat seriously, how can it have no strategy for dealing with ISIS in Syria, or anywhere, 8 months later?

Perhaps the political advisors in the White House have yet to calculate how to use this threat to influence the November elections or to at the very least blame Congress for it. But we already know the president has a phone – right next to his pen – and that the Pentagon has phones, too. If he has taken the threat of ISIS seriously for eight months, why has he not used his phone to call the Pentagon and ask the military to formulate some possible strategies for any number of scenarios?

It’s clear the White House has not been interested in the threat posed by ISIS, either abroad or here in the homeland, or else we wouldn’t still be without a plan.

Which brings us to the “clarification” on Friday.

Josh Earnest, appearing on Morning Joe, said, “We don't have plans in place right now for what we want to do and what we could do militarily in Syria. But when it comes to confronting ISIL, the president has made very clear we do have a comprehensive strategy for confronting that threat that is posed by ISIL. That begins with supporting Iraq’s political leaders as they form the kind of inclusive government that can unite the country to confront the threat that their country faces right now.”

First, there they go again using ISIL—Islamic State in the Levant—as opposed to ISIS, the Islamic State in Syria. This is to sow confusion and distract from the administration’s record in dealing with this crisis.

Second, so our strategy is dependent upon Iraqi Shia, Sunni and Kurds coming together, putting aside centuries of hatred, forming a drum circle and singing “Kumbaya”? Hmmm … why didn’t we think of that before? Wait, we did.

Earnest wasn’t done. “It includes beefing up our support to Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in the form of training and equipment to help them take the fight to ISIL on the ground in their country.” This makes sense, but it would have made more sense before ISIS was the fully armed, disciplined and funded outfit it is now.

Earnest then added that the president has dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to the area to “engage” with the region’s leaders but wasn’t clear on the goal of that engagement beyond engagement for its own sake.

Plus, he threw in that we’re bombing them in Iraq at least, so there’s that.

See, we do have a strategy. It’s a muddled, rudderless, leaderless strategy with no clear directives or goals. But really, is that such a surprise?


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barack0bama; isis; nationalsecurityfail; terrorism
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1 posted on 08/31/2014 4:01:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

I never thought someone could make Jimmy Carter look good.


2 posted on 08/31/2014 4:05:18 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Manchuria Called. They want their Candidate Back!)
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To: Kaslin

The “strategy” is quite clear...

The strategy is to avoid attacking his fellow islamic/satanic terrorists and covertly support satan’s caliphate.


3 posted on 08/31/2014 4:09:11 AM PDT by newfreep ("Evil succeeds when good men do nothing" - Edmund Burke)
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To: Kaslin

The Pentagon has a number of strategies ready to implement, but Obama won’t pull the trigger on any of them.


4 posted on 08/31/2014 4:25:40 AM PDT by randita ("Is a nation without borders a nation?"...Noonan)
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To: Kaslin

The strategy is simple.

It’s better people believe you’re an incompetent boob than a collaborator.

With incompetence there is only a political price to pay, with collaboration you pay with your life.


5 posted on 08/31/2014 4:32:57 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: Kaslin

No plan is required because unilaterally the time for action passed two years ago.

The course now is reaction and the situation is much to fluid for rection other than at the margins. That action at the margins is to plink at attacking ISIL armour or guns or command.

The partition of Iraq and Syria is fiat accompli. The world can only watch to see how it develops. My belief is that once the surge is over, cooler heads will begin to react to the excess.

History is a process, not an event


6 posted on 08/31/2014 4:37:30 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: EQAndyBuzz
The last most horrible President we had was Carter and after he lost to Reagan, I sighed in relief knowing that we would never see another one like him.

I took comfort in that idea from January 20th 1981 until January 20th 2009.

When Obama was sworn in I feared for America and the West, knowing that this stuffed shirt is a nothing with no experience and a lot of self-confidence based on being a Community Organizer.

I feared for the worst and the sum of all those fears are being realized like a very bad dream.

Many folks now realize (it took 6 years???) that he is worse than anybody could have predicted.

Even though I stood vehemently against him, I still wanted him to succeed and be a good President and world leader.

He is the sum of all nothingness, inabilities and ineptitude.

My Leftist froends all knee-jerk re-flexed at me that I was a “Racist” but that is not true. I am and have been against a rudderless so-called leader who is leading us to ruin.
How is it that Impeachment proceedings were conducted against Clinton for lying about Lewinsky and Obama is untouched thus far?

7 posted on 08/31/2014 4:37:47 AM PDT by Netz
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To: EQAndyBuzz
I never thought someone could make Jimmy Carter look good

Carter was obviously unprepared to be President. In 1976, that was a novelty.

It's disturbing that now, unpreparedness is regarded as an extra-special qualification.

8 posted on 08/31/2014 4:38:09 AM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: newfreep

> The “strategy” is quite clear...

The strategy is to avoid attacking his fellow islamic/satanic terrorists and covertly support satan’s caliphate.

You forgot pay back the white man and destroy the U.S. for his puppetmaster, Soros, then collect his fee and flee the U.S. to live in a Muslim country.


9 posted on 08/31/2014 4:38:45 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: IMR 4350

> The strategy is simple.

It’s better people believe you’re an incompetent boob than a collaborator.

With incompetence there is only a political price to pay, with collaboration you pay with your life.

Excellent point.


10 posted on 08/31/2014 4:44:19 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: newfreep

The “strategy” is quite clear...The strategy is to avoid attacking his fellow islamic/satanic terrorists and covertly support satan’s caliphate.
++++
But it is a limited strategy - it only applies to Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistsn, Iran and Greater Gaza AKA Israel.

If you are right, and you are, then Obama has to be viewed as quite successful. His only real setback has been in Egypt where the people finally woke up and tossed out Morsi and The Muslim Brotherhood. And, of course, the Gaza Project is not going well. But everywhere else there is progress. More chaos. More territory controlled by the Jiadists. And Iran inching closer and closer to having a long range nuclear capability.


11 posted on 08/31/2014 4:54:17 AM PDT by InterceptPoint (Remember Mississippi)
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To: InterceptPoint; jsanders2001

It all gets back to obamatollah’s core & where he places his loyalty & allegiance.

When he bowed AND knelt in subservience to the saudi/islamic king, he publically demonstrated “he will stand with the muzzies when the winds of change blow”.

All his policies and actions come directly from his core.

Those who ascribe to his “incompetence” simply miss the core truth that explains all of his treasonous acts.


12 posted on 08/31/2014 5:00:24 AM PDT by newfreep ("Evil succeeds when good men do nothing" - Edmund Burke)
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To: Kaslin
The author touched on the real issue:

Perhaps the political advisors in the White House have yet to calculate how to use this threat to influence the November elections or to at the very least blame Congress for it.

This situation is more complex than Ferguson, so it will take them longer to figure out how to spin it against Congressional Republicans.

13 posted on 08/31/2014 5:08:42 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: Kaslin

“The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.”

Just because O’bastard put on a suit like President G. W. Bush, doesn’t mean he has the clanging set of balls that would deal with the problem!


14 posted on 08/31/2014 5:14:13 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Unions are an Affirmative Action program for Slackers! .)
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To: Kaslin
Obama's NEW strategy.


15 posted on 08/31/2014 5:16:51 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: Kaslin

Barry is simply telling another lie (for him it’s like breathing). He has a strategy; it’s called treason.


16 posted on 08/31/2014 5:42:53 AM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: UCANSEE2

In the hall boys and girls away from the windows.

Line up in 2 rows, duck and cover facing the wall boys and girls.

Make sure you say in your assigned places boys and girls it’s easier to identify your body.

Ah yes those were good times.


17 posted on 08/31/2014 5:46:40 AM PDT by IMR 4350
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To: Tennessee Nana; AuntB; TADSLOS; sickoflibs; Jane Long; GOPJ; Grampa Dave

Then-pres Carter went to Mexico on an official trip-—he joked his staff all got “Montezuma’s Revenge.” Mexico threw him out—cancelled all his scheduled appearances.

Same impact when Mexican president Nieto went to California—declaring it “the other Mexico.” What with swarms of illegal Central Americans and Mexicans pouring over the southern border, Americans greeted Nieto’s declaration with horror and apprehension.


18 posted on 08/31/2014 5:48:54 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Kaslin

Obama is planning on being the Caliph.


19 posted on 08/31/2014 5:52:04 AM PDT by Swordmaker (This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users continue...)
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To: All

After Obama’s presser reinforced our weakness, announcing we he had no strategy on ISIS——Susan Rice was seen at Staples buying a case of white-out to redo her resume.

UN Amb Samantha Powers was in the UN bar chug-a-lugging straight bourbon.


20 posted on 08/31/2014 5:52:31 AM PDT by Liz
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