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Military Upset with White House 'Micromanagement' of ISIS War
The Daily Beast ^ | October 31, 2014 | Josh Rogin and Eli Lake

Posted on 10/31/2014 6:47:30 AM PDT by C19fan

Top military leaders in the Pentagon and in the field are growing increasingly frustrated by the tight constraints the White House has placed on the plans to fight ISIS and train a new Syrian rebel army.

As the American-led battle against ISIS stretches into its fourth month, the generals and Pentagon officials leading the air campaign and preparing to train Syrian rebels are working under strict White House orders to keep the war contained within policy limits. The National Security Council has given precise instructions on which rebels can be engaged, who can be trained, and what exactly those fighters will do when they return to Syria. Most of the rebels to be trained by the U.S. will never be sent to fight against ISIS.

Making matters worse, military officers and civilian Pentagon leaders tell The Daily Beast, is the ISIS war's decision-making process, run by National Security Advisor Susan Rice. It's been manic and obsessed with the tiniest of details. Officials talk of sudden and frequent meetings of the National Security Council and the so-called "Principals Committee" of top defense, intelligence, and foreign policy officials (an NSC and three PCs in one week this month); a barrage of questions from the NSC to the agencies that create mountains of paperwork for overworked staffers; and NSC insistence on deciding minor issues even at the operational level.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Syria
KEYWORDS: hsc; iran; iraq; isis; isiswar; kurdistan; lebanon; micromanage; nsc; obamaisis; susanrice; syria; turkey; waronisis
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Happy Halloween. Let me present Barack Obama dressed up as LBJ and Susan Rice as Robert McNamara. Lions led by donkeys.
1 posted on 10/31/2014 6:47:31 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

Very reminiscent of LBJ’s “Tuesday Lunch Club” who approved every airstrike and bombing plan during Vietnam. Last I checked, it’s not a good approach for winning a conflict... but then, Obama’s goal isn’t “winning.” In his perverted, marxist “mind,” the only acceptable outcome is a beatdown for America.


2 posted on 10/31/2014 6:54:33 AM PDT by ScottinVA (We either destroy ISIS there... or fight them here. Pick one, America.)
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To: C19fan

Yup


3 posted on 10/31/2014 6:55:54 AM PDT by StoneWall Brigade (Howard Phillips Conservative)
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To: C19fan
Obama and Rice are using the old Liberal Progressive trick of using the System to defeat System by forcing the system to go through so many hoops on everything to create bureaucratic log jams to frustrate, delay and make sure nothing gets done.

By the time Obama finally makes a decision the ISIS terrorists are dying of old age in a rest home in Qatar

4 posted on 10/31/2014 6:56:21 AM PDT by rdcbn
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To: C19fan

5 posted on 10/31/2014 6:57:55 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (The cure has become worse than the disease. Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: C19fan

Those who do not learn from the idiocy of LBJ are doomed to repeat his disastrous mistakes.


6 posted on 10/31/2014 7:02:05 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: C19fan

I heard that the #2 in ISIS was formerly embedded with US Marines in Fallujah. He knows our tactics and procedures very well and had been able to minimize ISIS losses because our military is unable to change the way they do things.

Of course, the military’s hands are tied by the Obama Administration.

I predict our activities against ISIS will slow down really fast after the election.


7 posted on 10/31/2014 7:05:11 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
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To: C19fan

The military should be used to it by now. Can nobody find a better source than the Daily Beast?


8 posted on 10/31/2014 7:07:09 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (zerogottago)
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To: C19fan

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3221644/posts


9 posted on 10/31/2014 7:07:36 AM PDT by Road Warrior ‘04 (Molon Labe! (Oathkeeper))
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To: C19fan

...and yet, not a single member of the JCS has resigned in protest. They need to put their stars on the table or keep bending at the knee of their boy king.


10 posted on 10/31/2014 7:07:52 AM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: C19fan

Boy I can not stand micro-managers. The Commonwealth’s Attorney(s) for whom I worked were not.


11 posted on 10/31/2014 7:09:14 AM PDT by RIghtwardHo
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To: TADSLOS

The JCS more interested in not stirring the waters so they can cash in when they retire and walk across the street to all the defense contractors located near the Pentagon.


12 posted on 10/31/2014 7:09:26 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: C19fan

“and what exactly those fighters will do when they return to Syria.”

Riiiiiggggghhhht.


13 posted on 10/31/2014 7:10:53 AM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: Erik Latranyi; WayneS

The whole thing is nuts, anyway. The terrorists in Canada who went on a rampage wanted to leave for the Middle East to fight there, but Canada took their passports. Why??? Let them go. Let them all go. In fact, ban Islam, deport Muslims (change whatever laws it takes to do that), and bring our troops back home and put them on our borders. To hell with the Muslims! Let them fight to the death there and keep them out of civilized countries. Airlines should institute a pet-the-pig-before-boarding requirement for anyone getting on a plane.

As long as we have the enemy in our country and increasing in numbers, nothing we do in the Middle East will make us safer.


14 posted on 10/31/2014 7:12:17 AM PDT by Pining_4_TX (All those who were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48)
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To: C19fan

Obama believes if it was good enough for Johnson it is good enough for him.


15 posted on 10/31/2014 7:15:15 AM PDT by School of Rational Thought
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To: C19fan

The air strikes are for appearances only, nothing more. Military sources have stated something like this would require hundreds of strikes per day to destroy and degrade ISIL.


16 posted on 10/31/2014 7:20:08 AM PDT by headstamp 2
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To: C19fan

...and therein lies the problem.


17 posted on 10/31/2014 7:28:35 AM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: headstamp 2

The writers from the 80S GI Joe cartoon could come up with a slightly better strategy - almost.


18 posted on 10/31/2014 7:30:50 AM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: C19fan

I knew from the beginning of this quagmire that øbola would not destroy his creation.


19 posted on 10/31/2014 7:43:40 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: C19fan

First thoughts on my mind, LBJ.


20 posted on 10/31/2014 7:46:11 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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