Awkward.
Just a week after President Obama said that he didn’t have a strategy to fight the Islamic State, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said that the military has one and it was ordered up by the commander-in-chief.
During a Facebook town hall, he said, “At the president’s direction, we have developed a military strategy with a series of options on how we can initially contain, continue to disrupt, and ultimately defeat ISIL.”
His comment came after Obama, traveling overseas, tried to explain his “no strategy” statement this week. But in that comment, he specifically said that his government doesn’t have a military strategy.
In Estonia, Obama said, “I was specifically referring to the possibility of a military strategy inside of Syria that might require Congressional approval. It is very important from my perspective that when we send our pilots in to do a job that we know this is a mission that’s gonna work, that we’re very clear on what our objectives are, what our targets are.”
Dempsey was answering questions about ISIS and U.S. airstrikes against them. His full comment on Facebook:
“Thanks for sharing your concerns regarding the situation in Iraq. The group known as ISIL, ISIS or the Islamic State is a terrorist organization seeking to recreate the ancient kingdom of Sham, which once stretched from Lebanon to the current state of Israel to Syria to Jordan to Iraq and to Kuwait.
“ISIL is radical in its ideology, brutal in its tactics, and closed to all but those who adhere to their narrow and exclusive world view. Freedom is antithetical to ISIL and that’s what makes them dangerous. The US military considers ISIL an immediate threat initially to the region, our partners, and to the United States of America in the longer term. At the President’s direction, we have developed a military strategy with a series of options on how we can initially contain, continue to disrupt, and ultimately defeat ISIL.
“While the military will certainly be part of this fight, there is no military-only solution, and it cannot be accomplished unilaterally. ISIL will be defeated when the populations on which they have imposed themselves reject them. Our actions are intended to move in that direction.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
