The White House said Monday that President Obama wouldn’t change his mind about his approach to the Syrian civil war, even if he were to read a dissenting memo from 51 State Department employees.
“Well, I do not know whether or not the president has read the cable,” spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. He added that Obama believes the diplomats’ ability to write a dissent is “worthwhile.”
But Obama stands by his belief that there is no military solution to the five-year conflict that has embroiled much of the Middle East, Earnest said.
Although his approach of only engaging the self-proclaimed Islamic State militarily in Syria while opting to deal with President Bashar Assad solely through diplomatic channels has neither ended the conflict nor brought Assad to the table, it is the U.S.’s best option, Earnest said.
It “has prevented a repetition of mistakes that previous administrations have made,” Earnest explained, referring to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “The United States will not be successful, nor will anyone else, in imposing a military solution on the problems inside of Syria.”
Earnest also said that targeting Assad’s forces and equipment would take away from the anti-Islamic State mission.
“Any careful consideration of directing military assets or intelligence assets against the Assad regime means that there are fewer assets and resources that are being directed at ISIL,” Earnest said. “And ISIL is the terrorist organization that poses a threat to the United States and our interests around the world.
“The president welcomes ideas from anyone that has a good one. But the president has been just as clear about the kinds of principles that we need to abide by in order to protect our interests,” Earnest said. “And the truth is, the strategy that we have pursued thus far has yielded some important results. We just haven’t gotten as far as we’d like.”
