Why Obama Must Sharpen His Strategy Against Islamic Militants

• By
 
• PETER WEHNER
• • http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/22/why-obama-must-sharpen-his-strategy-against-islamic-militants/
  • President Barack Obama, having earlier this year ridiculed the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as the “JV team,” has finally gotten around to taking the threat from ISIS seriously. U.S. airstrikes, combined with Iraqi and Kurdish forces, have retaken key areas in Iraq (including the dam in Mosul) that had been seized by the terrorist army
  • This is welcome news. But for now, it only signifies a tactical adjustment by the president. The burning question is whether he has fundamentally altered his strategy in dealing with Islamic militants — whether he is willing to go from containment to rollback, and whether he intends to pursue a policy to defeat the wealthiest, most well-armed and malevolent terrorist group on earth. (The estimates are that 10,000 to 17,000 fighters are affiliated with ISIS.)
    One example: Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision that will eventually have to be defeated… Can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization that resides in Syria? The answer is no.”
  • syria, consumed by civil war and a terrorist magnet, is the nation President Obama has been totally passive toward. He even refused to assist more moderate rebels when it could have made a difference, and did nothing when Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad crossed Mr. Obama’s chemical weapons “red line.”
    In addition, earlier this month, when the U.S. began airstrikes in Iraq, senior Obama administration officials were telling reporters, “This was not an authorization of a broad-based counterterrorism campaign.” The president himself, to this day, justifies America’s response based on protecting U.S. personnel in the region and preventing genocide. If his goal is to relentlessly pursue and defeat ISIS, he’s not willing to tell the rest of us.
    Is President Obama able to alter not just his response but also his entire cast of mind? Does he have the intellectual honesty, the cognitive flexibility, to admit his approach has utterly failed and that a new one is in order? Can the man whose presidency was predicated on ending wars now summon the will and fortitude to prosecute one against a group that “now controls a volume of resources and territory unmatched in the history of extremist organizations”?
    If he does, it will be the most impressive achievement of his presidency. If he doesn’t, it may well be the most damaging.