Does Obama Need ‘Time’ to Defeat or Forget ISIS?

isis-2During U.S. President Obama’s televised speech on his strategies to defeat the Islamic State, the president said, “Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL” (a reference to the Islamic State, or “IS).

Now, why is that?

First, we know by “cancer” he is not referring to Islamic ideology—since he does not acknowledge that Islam has anything to do with violence and even banned knowledge of Islamic ideology from being studied by law enforcement and national security communities.

Were he referring to Islamic ideology, the need for “time” would of course be legitimate, to say the least.

No, the cancer he is referring to is the very real, tangible, and temporal Islamic State, which exists in time and space.

But this prompts the following question: Why did it take the United States military three weeks to overthrow the very real and tangible regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 whereas “it will take time”—years, according to most military analysts—for the U.S. to defeat the Islamic State?

This question becomes more urgent when one considers that the Iraq conquered by the U.S. in less than a month had an actual government and longstanding military and was better organized and consolidated—certainly in comparison to the Islamic State, often described as a “ragtag team of terrorists” that seems to have appeared out of nowhere.

The reason it will take years is because Obama refuses to strike the Islamic State decisively and effectively, specifically by sending in U.S. ground forces—the very forces that were responsible for keeping the Islamic jihadis at bay; the forces he withdrew leading to the rise of the Islamic State; and the forces that he refuses to utilize again, even though they are necessary to decisively crush the “caliphate.”

Obama’s “it will take time” assertion prompts the following prediction: U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State targets will continue to be just enough to pacify those calling for action against the caliphate (“we’re doing what we can”).  The official narrative will be that the Islamic State is gradually being weakened, that victory is a matter of time (remember, “It will take time”).

In the meantime, the Islamic State will slowly begin to fade away from the headlines.  After all and unreported in any Western media, soon after pictures and videos of the decapitations of Americans went viral prompting much media attention followed by international shock and outrage, the “caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, called for an immediate stop to the videotaping and internet dissemination of such beheadings and other Sharia punishments.

He called on both official channels affiliated with the Islamic State as well as unofficial sympathizers and allies on social media to cease posting such pictures and/or video-clips, adding that IS “would follow any violation of this resolution seriously.”

It is these images of utter savagery that first catapulted the Islamic State into the spotlight, eventually causing Americans to call on U.S. leadership to respond, and it is these images that forced Obama to react to IS.

To be sure, had Islamic State members not posted those many images of cruelty which went viral, the world would know little about them—Western mainstream media would certainly not have been the ones to expose them—and Obama would not now be required to condemn and engage them.

But apparently that was the price the Islamic State had to pay to inspire and mobilize many more Islamic terrorists—to prompt them to raise their heads up high and to “heal their hearts.”  Time will tell if the majority will heed their new caliph’s resolution or not.

If the jihadis do comply, things will quiet down; the mainstream media will return to more familiar, more Kardashian headlines; we will hear about the occasional victory against IS—this or that leader killed or captured—even as the administration continues to exploit the conflict in a way to attack neighboring Syrian leader Bashar Assad (with the inevitable result that more jihadis will once again fill the vacuum created by his departure, as they did in post-Arab-Spring Libya).

Then, just as they “suddenly” appeared in Iraq, we will “suddenly” again hear—probably first from IS itself—that the Islamic State has made some major comeback, winning over some new piece of territory, as the caliphate continues to grow and get stronger.

In this context, Obama’s call for “time” appears to be less about a true need and more about getting Americans to forget about the Islamic State, at least until he is out of office.

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  • Texas Patriot

    The war against ISIS pits those who claim that Islam is a peaceful and benevolent contributor to world civilization, i.e. America and our coalition partners, with those who claim that Islam is a violent religion of conquest whose mission it is to conquer the world in the name of Islam and force non-Muslims to submit to Islamic sharia law. Thus the insistence by Barack Obama, David Cameron, and other members of America’s coalition against ISIS that terrorism is “not Islamic” and has nothing to do with Islam. It’s an ideological war like none other in history, and as Leon Panetta recently said, it is likely to take at least thirty years.

  • Hard Little Machine

    Because Americans have a 30 day attention span. Or in this case he has to pretend fight this until after the elections. Then it will disappear from the news cycle as ordered by the White House. “Years” is like the phrases in Torah such as ’40 days’ or ’40 years’. It means ‘an unaccountably long time that no one really accurately tracked’.

  • putupjob

    only four weeks to go and then obola will have all his ISIS concerns wrapped up.
    obola will have to have a few more air strikes here and there and suppress the ISIS advances from the press reports.

    Only 26 days until vacation time (for mooch – Nov 4).

  • carpe diem 36

    our president proves to all of us time and again how incompetent he is at solving problems, and how good he is at creating them.

  • USNbubblehead

    “Why did it take the United States military three weeks to overthrow the
    very real and tangible regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 whereas “it will
    take time”—years…for the U.S. to
    defeat the Islamic State?”

    And remember, this is from the same folks who were wringing their hands and screaming ‘quagmire’ barely three days into the effort to remove Saddam. I remember shaking my head at this. After all, it took the Nazis six days to conquer Holland, a much smaller state, and with a much greater force disparity favoring the Germans.

    Conclusion? These folks don’t have the slightest idea what they’re talking about when it comes to military affairs. All they know is politics.

  • William

    Kerry says that the war with ISIL may last three years.
    Pure insanity. It’s time for Americans to hit the streets in protest.

    • cree

      As with Code Pink, right? You still have time to figure out the earth world your utopian imagination sees will never exist.

      • William

        Yes, Code Pink is out there protesting. But it needs to be done en masse. Millions of people nation-wide.

        • cree

          There are not enough pink type utopian imaginary millions en masse. Hoping for a re-run of Viet Nam days? Do you go back that far? I do. Your hair does; at least you have some, a lot more than me; I’m bald now but wiser.

  • wileyvet

    If anyone in authority would actually give an honest appraisal of Islamic history, that is why and how the Middle East became Arab and Muslim, then they would understand that this has everything to do with Islam.
    Apparently the only people on the planet that had colonialism or imperialism were Europeans. Never mind that Islamic conquests began 2 years after the prophet’s death and continued virtually unabated for 13 centuries until the demise of the Ottoman Empire post World War I.

    The record of Islamic conquest and rule, however, is a subject that warrants no examination or critical analysis. Like Islam itself. Hundreds of books have been written on Naz!sm, without anyone labelling such historians or critics as Germanophobes. Likewise with Leninism, Stalinism or Communism. Today we face a threat more pernicious, more insidious than either of those to “isms”, yet the powers that be wish to silence such critics, and condemn such necessary examinations of the nature of the threat the world faces.

    The Muslims in the west are the other side of the IS coin. It is Islam itself that must be purged from our nations. It is Muslims themselves that must be removed from civilized society. At the same time utterly and thoroughly destroying the Islamic State, down to the last man. No prisoners, no trials for detainees. Nothing but destruction for one and all involved in this 7th century Islamic barbarity. There is simply no other way to end this except through the grim task of complete annihilation of Islam by forced deportations and destruction of every Mosque and Imam that resides in the west.

    Islam began this Jihad 1400 years ago and nothing in its core tenets releases its adherents from the obligation as a Muslim to wage Jihad in Allah’s cause. The Koran is an open ended call for unceasing warfare against ALL that stand in the way of Islam ruling, and for those that reject, what Muslims understand to be the inherent and universal truth of Islam. The entire root of their faith is that Muslims, by divine ordination are to rule the earth, guided only by the laws of Allah, and following the practices of Muhammad. Islam was given as the last testament to mankind thus nullifying all other beliefs, faiths, doctrines etc., that are in contradiction to, and defiance of Allah’s word. That is the ugly face of Islam. As established and practiced by Muhammad. Corroborated by centuries of Islamic scholarship and Fiqh and reignited by Al-Qaida and now ISIS and or The Islamic State. That is the truth about Islam that the west ignores and the Muslim spokesmen deny. We do so at our peril.

    • cree

      I, a fellow vet can see you are rightfully pissed at our enemy. We too. We’re going to have to figure out the moral high ground way to defeat this enemy, as in victory, the 1.5 with a b as in billion muslims. Victory for us will mean war-crazed Islamists will come to submission to their victors before allah. Since allah is at least second and temporarily, that means they’ll never really give up and neither shall we. It is what it is.

  • watsa46

    The Pr. must be referring to the non-Islamic Muslims (= Islamists) who at the strict minimum are between 160 and 250Mil!!!! What about the silent majority? I bet the majority of this silent majority is also Islamist!!! So 800Mil. OH MY!!!!!!

  • Pericles

    “The reason it will take years is because Obama refuses to strike the
    Islamic State decisively and effectively, specifically by sending in
    U.S. ground forces—the very forces that were responsible for keeping the
    Islamic jihadis at bay; the forces he withdrew leading to the rise of
    the Islamic State; and the forces that he refuses to utilize again, even
    though they are necessary to decisively crush the “caliphate.”

    Obama is not opposed to a Caliphate. The only question is whether it should be a Sunni or Shia caliphate. Either is probably acceptable to him. He prefers a Middle East dominated by Islamists to one dominated by secular dictators. Hence, his involvement in deposing and/or killing Mubarak, Ghaddafi and Assad. Yet although the Mullahs in Iran are as despotic and brutal as any secular regime he has sought accords with them despite their revolting human rights violations.

    I leave it to others to untangle this conundrum or puzzle, but to me it is clear he prefers and supports Islamist tyrants over secular ones, albeit the former are our enemies while the latter were our allies (if not ‘friends’).

  • Pericles

    “In this context, Obama’s call for “time” appears to be less about a
    true need and more about getting Americans to forget about the Islamic
    State, at least until he is out of office.”

    Diversion and distraction have worked for him with regard to other failures, debacles and scandals because the MSM is his accomplice. He will continue employing this methodology until his last day in office. Americans are easily distracted and that unfortunate trait works to his advantage and that of his co-conspirators.

  • RMThoughts

    Obama’s plan to ISIS is ineffective at best. Rather, NATO allies should aim towards forcing the terrorist organization that is destabilizing the territories of Iraq and Syria to implode from within. Most of all, the Atlantic Alliance cannot work because it has excluded Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, which is as much an omission as it is a contradiction in terms.

    ISIS was favored by the fact that some of the West’s allies – namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Turkey – have promoted the armed opposition against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which, as dictatorial it may be, has yet to find any credible and – reasonable – alternative. Obama’s strategy was conceived and delivered far more to respond to internal pressures from neo-liberal ‘hawks’ also known as the neocon intervensitonist rather than to actually resolve the IS problem. Perhaps, that is the weakness of his foreign policy.

    The fact that President Obama has remained reluctant to intervene militarily in Syria to influence the outcome of the civil war over the past three years suggests that he has realized that working with the Syrian regime offers the only real chance of eradicating ISIS the terrorist group. Moreover, the Atlantic Alliance is fully aware that the Syrian army, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are the ones performing the actual “dirty work” (i.e. combat) on the ground; and this very important latter part is exactly what the allies will not be doing.

  • USARetired

    Obama is a devout Muslim and will never confront Islam face to face! He would not survive 5 minuets in office if we had a Congress and Senate worth their salt ! He is also an illegal immigrant with no legal US documents in his name. Even his SSN is stolen! He is a bum hear to do all the damage possible!!