However, when the program had not produced any positive results, the United States president had to suspend it and recognize the inefficiency of the Pentagon’s military operation, the article said.
Advertisement
US President Barack Obama has told CBS in an interview that his objective was to verify whether training and equipping Syria’s moderate opposition against ISIS was possible.
Obama has been heavily criticized in recent months as lacking a strategy to stem Syria’s chaos and defeat Islamic State militants.
The question of how much Obama knew about Putin’s plans has become more prominent as presidential candidates Donald Trump, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen.
During the last week of September, Russian Federation started launching airstrikes all over Syria. Russia, meanwhile, has stolen worldwide attention by elbowing its forces right into the middle of a war America is supposed to be leading. The US said it would provide direct aid to existing groups on the ground instead.
President Obama said in an interview late Sunday that Russia’s increasing military presence in Syria should be not interpreted as “an indication of strength”.
“I don’t think it posed a national security problem”, Obama said. “What we have not been able to do so far – and I’m the first to acknowledge this – is to change the dynamic inside of Syria”. “We don’t get an impression that there [were] purposely efforts to hide something or to squirrel away information”.
Obama said the USA would try to use diplomatic channels to work with both Iran and Russian Federation to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad for a “transition”.
“Uh, no, well, Steve, I gotta tell you, if, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership.”
He said that Biden would “go down as one of the finest vice presidents in history” and that it would be surprising if any official near the top of a presidential administration “has not thought about being the president”.
Advertisement
Steve Kroft: I want to talk about the- this program, because it would seem to show, I mean, if you expect 5,000 and you get five, it shows that somebody someplace along the line did not- made- you know, a few sort of a serious miscalculation.
