“But you don’t see this systematic march by ISIL across the terrain”, he said, using an alternate acronym for IS.
Advertisement
President Obama dismissed Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s suggestion in that he might eliminate ISIS “fairly easily” if he have been commander in chief.
Obama gave the interview before news broke of a United States air strike in Syria targeting “Jihadi John”, a masked British militant who appeared in a string of graphic execution videos.
“Pay no attention to that terrorist group behind the curtain!” the president might say.
President Obama rejected criticism that the Islamic State was gaining strength in Iraq and Syria even as he admitted that the campaign against the group faced significant constraints.
The president said his team has crafted a strategy that “contained the momentum that ISIL had gained”, but said there will continue to be problems in the region “until we get the Syria political situation resolved”. However, the president admitted that attempts to “decapitate” ISIS’ leadership have been unsuccessful and will require a “multi-year effort”.
Speaking with Reason TV about US involvement in the disastrous Syrian civil war, Weiss laments, “I can speak glibly about no-fly zones, but at this point I just understand this administration is never going to do anything to rescue the Syrian people or prevent Assad, Iran, and Russian Federation from killing everybody they want to”.
“ISIS is making a tremendous amount of money because they have certain oil caps, right?” That announcement was made despite Obama promising at least eight times since 2013 to not put boots on the ground in Syria. That’s laughable, but not for the reasons Obama thinks. From the same guy who called Islamic State the “JV” past year, comes another giggle-worthy pronouncement on the progress we’re making to “defeat and destroy” them. They believe if they can coerce Western powers to engage in war with them, this would reveal the final imam and they could proceed to take over the world from there, according to Copeland.
The Democratic Forces of Syria, which joins together the U.S.-backed YPG and several Syrian Arab rebel groups, announced its formation in October, and launched an offensive against IS in Hasaka later that month. Barzani’s remarks also made clear that political conflict over Sinjar wo-uld likely follow military battle for the town.
Advertisement
Allen said the Peshmerga are being supported and armed by 14 countries, but having that support flow through Iraq is part of the design of American intervention in the region. The Kurds are going to lay claim to territory they liberate, and that will very quickly become a huge problem in the anti-ISIS fight. We have to rely on trying to build the capacity of local fighters and looking for organizations with whom we can work to take the fight to ISIL on the ground.
