President Barack Obama admitted today something that much of the world has been belatedly figuring out – that he has absolutely no strategy for how to deal with the murderous terrorist organization that has beheaded an American civilian it took hostage, taken over large chunks of Iraq, is committing genocide against Iraq’s minority religious groups, and is threatening to take over Syria while carrying out mass executions of Syrians.
In a press conference, Obama announced,
“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet,” he said. “We need to make sure that we’ve got clear plans, that we’re developing them.”
If Obama did not have a plan—and he knew his administration did not have a plan—perhaps he should have spent a little less time on the golf course and a little more time, perhaps, developing a strategy. Of course, earlier this year in an interview withthe New Yorker, he suggested suggesting that ISIL was a junior varsity team not as threatening as Al Qaeda. “If a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” he told the magazine so, evidently, the group’s murderous rampage has been catching him by surprise for months.
Obama now admits that “ISIL poses an immediate threat to the people of Iraq, and the people of the region” though, invirtually the same breath he relaxes that urgency, saying “there would be plenty of time for Congress to review the strategy when it gets back from its summer recess.”
Obama’s foreign policy plan—or lack thereof—for Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine is not much more advanced. Obama “ruled out direct U.S. military action in Ukraine, saying it’s ‘not in the cards.’” We really hope that does not mean the President of the United States is relying on tarot cards to make foreign policy decisions but, considering his recent track recordof failure, maybe that would actually make sense.
What’s truly unfortunate is that, after more than five years in office, the words “We don’t have a strategy yet” are trulyindicative of Obama’s entire presidency.
Leave a Reply