U.S. military commanders say they are not getting sufficient guidance from President Trump’s White House in their mission to defeat the Islamic State, according to a report published Friday afternoon.
“We send memos. We tell them [the White House] what is going on. I’m not sure they’re listening, or if they even know what we’re doing out here,” one commander told NBC. “I don’t think anyone is home right now.”
Although the U.S. military has said it is nearing the final stages of wiping out the Islamic State terrorist group in the Middle East, senior leaders said they need guidance on how to finish what they started four years ago.
With little strategy coming from the White House, ISIS may be getting closer to being able to reclaim some of the territory it had recently lost to the U.S. and ally nations.
Officials said they are concerned about relations between the U.S. and the Kurds of northern Syria. The fighters have been key U.S. partners on the battlefield thus far, but have had to leave the front lines in order to fight Turkish forces as they storm into Kurdish towns from the north.
U.S. officials also worry that militant fighters connected to Syrian President Bashar Assad could move in on American troops.
To make matters worse, Trump’s recent terminations of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster cast more uncertainty over U.S. foreign policy and national security, even though he has selected replacements.
“We’re on the two-yard line. We could literally fall into the end zone. We’re that close to total victory, to wiping out the ISIS caliphate in Syria,” a U.S. special forces commander told NBC. “We’re that close and now it’s coming apart.”
