President Obama Says He Still Does Not Have a Plan to Deal with ISIS in Iraq

Yesterday, at the G-7 Summit in Germany, President Obama said this about his strategy to deal with the growing threat from ISIS in Iraq:

“When a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon then I will share it with the American people.  We don’t yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how that recruitment takes place, how that training takes place.”

Remember that Mr. Obama also said he did not have a plan to deal with ISIS in August 2014.  In September 2014, he announced a new plan to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS in Iraq and Syria by providing military assistance to the Iraqi army and the Iraqi Kurds, conducting airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, and training moderate Syrian rebel fighters.

Nine months later, Mr Obama is admitting the obvious: he does not have a “complete strategy” to defeat ISIS in Iraq but is trying to shift the blame to the Iraqi government and the Pentagon.

As I wrote in a Fox News op-ed last month, I believe President Obama actually does have a strategy for Iraq and Syria.  It is to do as little as possible in these conflicts.  He has placed severe limits on U.S. military advisers and trainers – they are not allowed to deploy with Iraqi troops even in non-combat roles.  U.S. pilots have complained that they are barred from attacking many key targets with airstrikes. The number of airstrikes has been significantly limited.  The U.S. program to train Syrian rebels is far behind schedule.

Mr. Obama wants to be seen as a president who ended wars, not a president who got the United States into a new war. He therefore is doing as little as he can get away with to address the chaos in Iraq and Syria so he can hand this mess to the next president.

Expect more spin from the president and his advisers over the next 18 months on how Mr Obama’s strategy in Iraq and Syria is working and blaming others for setbacks.  As a result, also expect threats to global security to increase because our president has abdicated his responsibility as the Commander in Chief and the leader of the free world.