Maybe he would have done it anyway, but I have the feeling that this new strategy against ISIS is just the administration's attempt to quell the hubbub over Obama's "we don't have a strategy yet" gaffe. The gaffe, like most gaffes, is really based on a misinterpretation of the quote. Obama was saying he had not figured out a strategy of how to deal with ISIS in Syria. He wasn't talking about ISIS in general. He clearly already had a strategy for that, the one that he was already pursuing by giving the Pesh Murga and Iraqi Army air support to reverse ISIS' gains.
But the fact that "we don't have a strategy yet" was repeated by the Washington bobbleheads as if it was an admission that Obama had no strategy at all, made the administration look bad. That's the reality. Like it or not, the President has to deal with when the people who create the overall narrative among the political class are either morons or pretend to be because they think that's all the plebs can handle. So now they have rushed out this strategy for dealing with ISIS that conveniently pushes the hard part (dealing with ISIS in Syria) back a few years, which is both after this President's term and gives time for the situation in Eastern Syria to change.
I'm going to resist the urge to pick apart the overall plan. Suffice it to say that coming up with a new policy to quell the controversy surrounding a gaffe has got to be one of the worst ways to come up with a military strategy.
But the fact that "we don't have a strategy yet" was repeated by the Washington bobbleheads as if it was an admission that Obama had no strategy at all, made the administration look bad. That's the reality. Like it or not, the President has to deal with when the people who create the overall narrative among the political class are either morons or pretend to be because they think that's all the plebs can handle. So now they have rushed out this strategy for dealing with ISIS that conveniently pushes the hard part (dealing with ISIS in Syria) back a few years, which is both after this President's term and gives time for the situation in Eastern Syria to change.
I'm going to resist the urge to pick apart the overall plan. Suffice it to say that coming up with a new policy to quell the controversy surrounding a gaffe has got to be one of the worst ways to come up with a military strategy.
