The Patriot Post® · No Offense, Just Defense Against ISIL

Part of Barack Obama’s “strategy” against ISIL is to train the Iraqi army and so-called moderate Syrian rebels to be boots on the ground in lieu of our own soldiers. But they’re playing defense instead of going on offense. The Washington Post reports the latest: “The Syrian opposition force to be recruited by the U.S. military and its coalition partners will be trained to defend territory, rather than to seize it back from the Islamic State, according to senior U.S. and allied officials, some of whom are concerned that the approach is flawed.” So why the tentative plan? “Although moderate Syrian fighters are deemed essential to defeating the Islamic State under the Obama administration’s strategy, officials do not believe the newly assembled units will be capable of capturing key towns from militants without the help of forward-deployed U.S. combat teams, which President Obama has so far ruled out.” Ah, so because he’s ruled out American boots on the ground, he’s not actually expecting to “degrade and destroy” ISIL as he promised. Doesn’t sound much like “Inherent Resolve” to us.