As seems to happen constantly, president Obama has said one thing and done another. Right now, I am talking about the plan for dealing with ISIS. A few months back, when ISIS fighters took Fallujah and Ramadi in Iraq, Obama actually mocked them as a second rate group by calling ISIS the "junior varsity" among terrorist groups. Obama had America ignore ISIS. When ISIS threatened our allies and friends the Kurds, we did not help. We gave the Kurds no weapons. We would not even give the Kurds ammunition for the weapons they already had. When ISIS overran a whole series of Iraqi army positions and took Mosul and Tikrit, Obama did nothing. He said that America would act only once a new Iraqi government was formed. While that happened, ISIS was on the march. During the six months or more when Obama ignored ISIS, that terror group conquered a huge swath of Iraq to go with the land ISIS already controlled in Syria. In those lands, ISIS slaughtered thousands of Yazidis and Christians as well as Shiite Moslems and even Sunni Moslems. Still, Obama did nothing. Only recently when the Kurds were threatened with ultimate defeat at the same time that ISIS was threatening to starve to death nearly 50,000 people did Obama decide that America would act.
It is not even two weeks since Obama announced that the US Air Force would intervene in Iraq against ISIS. Since that began, America has launched about fifty sorties against ISIS. The problem, of course, is that these air strikes are not enough to beat ISIS. On top of this, Obama put all the military action in the context of helping prevent genocide against the Yazidis and also protecting the personnel at the US embassy in Iraq. ISIS, however, underwent a major change according to the Obama administration. What had been the JV team suddenly became worse than al Qaeda. What had been a local terrorist group in Iraq and Syria was suddenly a threat to attack Chicago and elsewhere in America. The secretary of defense said that ISIS was worse than any terror group America had even faced.
So now that we are told that ISIS is a grave threat to America and the world, have we learned the policy that Obama plans to follow with regard to ISIS? Of course not! The only strategy that Obama seems to follow is to try to get to the green in two strokes and then to try for a par. Many voices have told us about ISIS, but the voice that counts, that of Obama, remains silent regarding how America plans to deal with this mess.
It's time for Obama to tell us how he plans to deal with ISIS. That may require Obama to make some decisions so it will be scary for Obama. We need to have a strategy, however, so Obama is just going to have to do it.
It is not even two weeks since Obama announced that the US Air Force would intervene in Iraq against ISIS. Since that began, America has launched about fifty sorties against ISIS. The problem, of course, is that these air strikes are not enough to beat ISIS. On top of this, Obama put all the military action in the context of helping prevent genocide against the Yazidis and also protecting the personnel at the US embassy in Iraq. ISIS, however, underwent a major change according to the Obama administration. What had been the JV team suddenly became worse than al Qaeda. What had been a local terrorist group in Iraq and Syria was suddenly a threat to attack Chicago and elsewhere in America. The secretary of defense said that ISIS was worse than any terror group America had even faced.
So now that we are told that ISIS is a grave threat to America and the world, have we learned the policy that Obama plans to follow with regard to ISIS? Of course not! The only strategy that Obama seems to follow is to try to get to the green in two strokes and then to try for a par. Many voices have told us about ISIS, but the voice that counts, that of Obama, remains silent regarding how America plans to deal with this mess.
It's time for Obama to tell us how he plans to deal with ISIS. That may require Obama to make some decisions so it will be scary for Obama. We need to have a strategy, however, so Obama is just going to have to do it.
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