State Department runs defense after Obama’s ISIS gaffe
Circling the drain
Yesterday, President Obama stood in front of an international press pool and admitted that “we don’t yet have a complete strategy” to defeat ISIS.
It was a great moment for American foreign relations.
After that disastrous press conference, officials from the Administration slid into a slow meltdown, walking back Obama’s painfully telling comments with explanations of what he really meant.
From last night, via Mediaite:
State Department spokesman John Kirby was on CNN earlier tonight, speaking with Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer brought up the remark and asked, “What’s taking so long?”
This was Kirby’s response:
“What the president was referring to was that the training and equipment strategy that we have been executing isn’t complete yet because there still have to be commitments from the Iraqi side. You need trainees, you need more trainees, and we’re working with them on that.”
But he pointed out the U.S. has already been training and equipped plenty of Iraqi forces already.
You can watch the segment here.
Jeff Rathke, another State Department spokesman, also spoke to the press and stressed that Obama was not speaking to overall strategy.
As I pointed out yesterday, the scandal doesn’t lie in our lack of a flawless offensive in Iraq and Syria, but in the fact that there’s been no forward motion whatsoever represented in the information that Obama and his lieutenants have made available to the press and the general public.
The international community looks at Washington, D.C. and senses the crisis of competence that has gripped the White House since last year. If Obama had gotten up in front of the press and said, “we’ve been training troops and deploying equipment, but before we can truly be effective we need more support from Iraqi leadership,” I’d be writing a thinkpiece about strained relations with the Middle East. Instead, I’m forced to point out the simple fact that, when faced with major questions, the best the president could do was admit that he doesn’t have his act together.
Crises of competence generally lead to crises of confidence, and that’s exactly where we’re heading unless the Administration can convince foreign leaders that our officials are indeed still capable of taking the lead in the battle against Islamic extremism.
All things considered, then…is it 2017 yet?
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Comments
Obama rejects any and all DOD plans that involve or risks killing Muslims out of hand.
His only real fight is with white Christian Conservatives, which if and when initiated he would carry out with the same resolve, tenacity and ferocity as the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Marines WWII assault on Iwo Jima.
Barack Hussein Obama is a self-inflicted wound and the complicit GOP festers as the kabuki continues.
Circling the drain? No, it clogged the drain in Nov 2012. The American voters had the chance to courtesy-flush and they failed to pull the lever all the way down.
To this Narcissitic Incompetent, image is everything. He needs the good graces of the Muslim countries in the UN to become General Secretary; after all, that bloc controls the General Assembly.
But the Muslims in the Middle East hate this faker – Barry Obama.
You could say the administration is feckless except its the most fecked-up administration we’ve had in some time.
Every time his majesty opens his mouth, the minions come running to explain “what he really meant.”
Well, then why doesn’t he clearly say what he means the first time ?
What a freaking bunch of lying incompetent morons !!
How could they tell?
Since everything Obama is a gaffe.
The simplest explanation for this gaffe is that the President of the United States does not understand the definition of the word “strategy.”
That, or he has been told by his military advisors that what he wants to do is not likely to have the effect he says he wants.
Obama finally tells the truth about something and immediately the feckless morons who infest our government undo the truth with a lie. What in the hell did America ever do to deserve this totally incompetent President and the idiots that he dragged in along with him ? If the country compounds this travesty by electing another incompetent, like Clinton , we are DOOMED!
Elect him ?
Two times ?
Elections have consequences, I guess.
Isn’t it great to have a “first” black President? Now imagine that we can continue this level of leadership by electing the first woman President. Continuing that thought, just think of of how many more “firsts” are in our future. We are truly the land of opportunity.
I seem to remember a training plan in place before Obama took office that he completely obliterated and withdrew from.
So, after all this time, the plan he is implementing is basically a reincarnation of the platform he ran so vehemently against for term 1? The slow ineptitude is strong in this one.
This is really weird.
The President of the United States says something about foreign policy and strategy; but later some guy nobody’s ever heard of contradicts it.
The Dems can’t even do walkbacks right.
This was no gaffe. Obama said what he meant and meant what he said. The Pentagon will have numerous plans to confront and defeat ISIS, but Obama rejects them all. He will not appear to be starting any wars, lest his Legacy be tainted and/or his uber-liberal base gets upset. All he’ll agree to is light air assaults, enough to provide the occasional newsbite of killing an ISIS leader here and there, for the news, and for political reasons only.
It wasn’t a gaffe. It was the truth.
O once again proves he is in way over his head.
Embarrasses America , again.
That’s if we make it to 2017. The way things are going we may not want to make it 2017….
Why do so many photos of Obama show him looking down and to the left? It is an interesting use of body language as a “tell”. Meaning he doesn’t believe what he is saying.
“WTF? We’ve given him lots of options, but he just hasn’t acted on them yet.”