The Pentagon is pleading for patience against a growing narrative that the U.S.-led effort to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is — at best — barely holding off the extremist group’s assault and may even be failing.
“Here we are, not three months into it and there are critics saying it is falling apart, it’s failing, the strategy is not sound,” Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday. “You cannot adequately gain a sense of the strength of a strategy over the course of three months. It’s just not possible. And it would be imprudent to do that.”
But much of the criticism of the Obama administration’s strategy is based on official statements that cast doubt on the abilities of the key allies on which it depends, most notably the Iraqi military, which U.S. military officials have said is months away from being ready to go on the offensive against the Islamic State.
And though the Shia-led government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi earlier this week appointed a Sunni lawmaker from Mosul, Khaled al-Obeidi, as defence minister, reports indicate the government has still not gained the trust of many of the Sunni tribal leaders essential to beating back the Islamic State’s advance.
Among the most prominent criticisms is a report released Thursday from the Center for Strategic and International Studies by strategist Anthony Cordesman that called the U.S.-led air campaign an “unfocused mess” and said the United States “does … need to develop a far more realistic strategy at the military level.”
“We believe that the strategy is sound and we also believe that it is showing effect,” Kirby said, noting that the airstrikes, which started Aug. 8 in Iraq have been having an effect, killing hundreds of Islamic State fighters, destroying their revenue, interrupting their communications and movements, and disrupting their sources of revenue. But “they’re still going to try to attempt to gain ground and we need to all be prepared for the fact that there will be times when they will be successful at doing that.”
