Obama Blinded By His Goals

President Obama has finally stated ISIS was underestimated by his intelligence team, going so far as to name James Clapper as being primarily at fault. Obama also admitted in his 60 Minutes interview that he overestimated the readiness of the Iraqi military when pulling out the last of American troops.

While there may be some degree of truth behind his admissions, Obama fails to admit he ignored the intelligence both he and congress received on numerous occasions in which it was pointed out that ISIS was becoming a major threat. At the same time, Obama refused to take seriously the military advise he received to leave a small force behind in Iraq. Now, both ISIS and Iraq have come back to haunt him.

By tossing James Clapper under the bus in his 60 Minutes interview, President Obama is trying to convince us this international crisis is not his fault when in reality it is. No one is hearing our president say, “The buck stops here.” Instead, it is the fault of those who work for him.

However, when our president receives daily briefings and hears congressional testimony from people who bring to his attention major threats to our security and he ignores them because of his own personal desires, he fails to be a leader who is strong enough to surround himself with nothing more than “yes” men and women. He becomes unable or unwilling to change his mind because he knows history is not always kind to leaders who do. You only have to go back to the first President Bush. Do you really think he wanted to break his “no new taxes” pledge and lose his party's support?

Unfortunately, President Obama became blind to any perspective that ran counter to his desire to be remembered as the president who got us out of both of George W. Bush's wars. Unfortunately, in doing so, Obama can not lay claim that both Afghanistan and Iraq are better off today. He also can not claim there is less of a threat from radical terrorism and now has admitted we are in for a long fight to combat it.

But what is really troubling is despite all of this, President Obama seems determined to follow the blind path he has been on for far too long. By refusing to listen to military advisers and experts and sticking to his “no boots on the ground” stance, our president is leading the nation down a dangerous and troubling path.

No one of any credibility has yet to state we can win this fight against ISIS by simply bombing them. Like it or not, boots are needed on the ground in Iraq and Syria. And like it or not, our president has told the entire world the United States will be the one to pull most of the weight behind the coalition fight against terrorism. How will this happen if we do not go after the terrorists?

Does President Obama really think the Iraqi army will get its act together and do the job for us? Does he think the Syrian government will welcome Iraqi troops inside their border? Our Arab coalition partners have been minor participants in our bombing raids. Who thinks they will jump at the chance to place their soldiers in harms way? And lets face it, European support is not much better than Arab support so if Obama is wise, he will not wait another eight to twelve months before deciding to do what we all know he needs to do. Waiting for mid term elections or hoping this can be passed on to his successor is only adding to the crisis. We all know what decision Obama needs to make but again, he is stubbornly sticking to an unrealistic goal which is only helping ISIS.

Our president has told us we are at war with ISIS and any other terrorist group with similar goals. It is time our president uses the resources at his disposal and begins to follow the advise of those who know more than him. If he is unwilling to fight a war with the intent to do whatever it takes to win, how does he expect to build a strong and committed coalition?

President Obama is at a point where his words are falling on deaf ears because our eyes see the reluctance in his when it comes to making difficult decisions that go against his prior set presidential goals. He would be better served not just in the short term but in the history books as well if he would forget about those goals and set about making the types of decisions that better serve this nation in the long term. Maybe then, future coalitions will be easier to build for the next president.