During a press conference in Elmau, Germany, President Barack Obama admitted that the U.S. needed to do more to train Iraqi forces to fight ISIS, admitting that he did not yet have a “complete strategy.” (RELATED: White House Statement On Christians Beheaded By ISIS Doesn’t Mention That They’re Christians)
OBAMA: With respect to ISIL, we have made significant progress in pushing back ISIL from areas in which they had occupied or disrupted local populations. But we’ve also seen areas like in Ramadi where they’re displaced in one place and they come back in another. And they’re nimble, they’re aggressive and they’re opportunistic.
So one of the areas where we’re going to have to improve is the speed at which we’re training Iraqi forces. Where we’ve trained Iraqi forces directly and equipped them and have a train and assist posture, they operate effectively. Where we haven’t, morale, lack of equipment, et cetera may undermine the effectiveness of Iraqi security forces. So we want to get more Iraqi security forces trained, fresh, well-equipped and focused, and President al-Abadi wants the same thing.
So we’re reviewing a range of plans for how we might do that, essentially accelerating the number of Iraqi forces that are properly trained and equipped and have a focused strategy and good leadership. And when a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon, then I will share it with the American people.
It’s not– we don’t yet have a complete strategy, because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well, about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place. And so the details of that are not yet worked out.