The rise of the ultra-violent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has revealed an unsettling truth: Top Obama administration officials do not appear to be communicating with each other as they scramble to address the growing terrorist threat.
For example, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest found himself in the uncomfortable position Tuesday afternoon of having to “clarify” remarks made earlier in the day by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Martin remarked during the hearing that if circumstances in areas controlled by the Islamic State, including Iraq and Syria, continue to spin out of control, diving deeper into chaos, he’d consider deploying U.S. combat troops.
“If the Iraqi security forces and the Peshmerga were at some point ready to retake Mosul, a mission that I would find to be extraordinarily complex, it could very well be part of that particular mission to provide close combat advising or accompanying for that mission,” he said. “But for the day to day activities I anticipate will evolve over time, I don’t see it to be necessary right now.”
This is in direct contradiction to President Obama’s oft-repeated promise to not put an “boots on the ground” in Iraq and Syria.
So it fell on Earnest to clear up Dempsey’s comments.
“I think, as was clear from General Dempsey’s remarks, that he was referring to a hypothetical scenario in which there might be a future situation in which he might make a tactical recommendation to the President as it relates to the use of ground troops,” the White House spokesman told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s the responsibility of the President’s military advisers to plan and consider all the wide range of contingencies. It’s also the responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief to set out a clear policy. And the President has been clear about what that policy is,” Earnest added. “He reiterated it on a number of occasions; most recently, I believe in his address to the nation on Wednesday night, which is that the President does not believe that it would be in the best interest of our national security to deploy American ground troops in a combat role in Iraq and Syria. That policy has not changed.”
Now, it’d be one thing if this were a one-time event, if the general had merely mused on hypotheticals and Earnest set the record straight. But there has been a troubling pattern of walk-backs and “clarifications” between the Pentagon, the White House and the State Department as each group has at some point had to “correct” the other.
Remember, Earnest earlier this year had to massage and walk back Obama’s infamous “we don’t have a strategy” remark. Elsewhere, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf contradicted Secretary of State John Kerry when she told reporters that the U.S. is not considering working with Iran to combat the Islamic State. And all of this is on top of both the White House and the Pentagon contradicting the State Department by confirming that the U.S. is indeed “at war” with the murderous terrorist group.
In short, it’s high time that the president call together everyone involved in combating the Islamic State to make sure everyone is on the same page. The White House can’t afford to project confusion and weakness, certainly not while this terrorist threat continues to grow.
