President Donald Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, criticized the Obama administration’s early strategy against the Islamic State in a Nov. 3 speech at the Virginia Military Institute.
McMaster, fielding questions from a VMI instructor, laid out several problems he observed in the early days of U.S. strategy development against ISIS, calling it, “insufficient.”
“Our failure to take action earlier I think, or decision not to take action earlier, had an effect that exacerbated the civil war in Syria,” he continued.
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In particular McMaster highlighted the reliance by the Obama administration on airpower and proxy forces, without boots on the ground. The Obama administration’s relied on airstrikes against ISIS while it spend a large portion of 2014 and 2015 training, advising, and assisting the Iraqi Security Forces. This approach “only went so far” against the terrorist group, McMaster said.
“What was missing was a land force right? A capable land force that had the capability and the will, both, to force an outcome consistent with our interests,” he declared. Many of the Iraqi Security Forces who originally faced ISIS in 2014 in the Battle for Mosul, cut and ran despite having superior numbers and firepower. ISIS continues to occupy nearly half the city.
The U.S. currently has approximately 5,000 troops inside Iraq, but only a few hundred embedded with the Iraqi Security Forces in the ongoing fight in Mosul. President Donald Trump has not indicated what changes he will make to anti-ISIS strategy, but has ordered a review by Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Mattis’s review recommendations are expected to debut next week.
Mattis is expected to make a number of recommendations to escalate the fight and reportedly have several plans in the works to increase the tempo of U.S. operations against ISIS. The options range from sending more U.S. special operators to Syria, directly arming rebel groups fighting ISIS, and using army attack helicopters against the ISIS capital of Raqqa.
U.S. Army Gen. Joesph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, indicated Tuesday the U.S. has multiple options to escalate the number of forces in the fight against ISIS. “I am very concerned about maintaining momentum,” he told reporters. He continued, “It could be that we take on a larger burden ourselves.”
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