Former Head of Marine Corps: Obama’s ISIS Strategy Doesn’t Have ‘A Snowball’s Chance in Hell’

A former head of the Marine Corps had a blatant dose of reality for Obama and his ISIS strategy. According to those in attendance at the Maverick PAC Conference in Washington, D.C. Friday, retired Marine General James Conway, who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps during the end of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration, said, “I don’t think the president’s plan has a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding.”

While this is a sentiment that most of us share, coming from a military commander with a résumé like the retired four-star General’s speaks volumes. As the top Marine general from 2006 until his retirement in 2010, hearing General Conway say President Barack Obama’s strategy to defeat the terrorist group the Islamic State is doomed to fail, should tell us something.

Not only was General Conway the top Marine general during the last years of his service, the Commandant of the Marine Corps also serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During the 2003 Iraq War, Conway led the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Sources say that the primary concern expressed by General Conway was that “the U.S. did not have a force on the ground in Syria it could rely on, like the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq. Though the Obama administration believes it can support what it says are moderate rebel forces in Syria to aid in the fight against ISIS, many critics warn that there may be no truly moderate force in the country of any significant strength.”

Obama’s strategy is no stranger to coming under fire. General Conway’s concerns are not the only reasons for the criticisms. In addition to the issue Conway addressed in his statement, Obama has also been recently criticized for preemptively taking off the table the possibility of using American combat troops to achieve the mission.

As reported by The Daily Caller:

“You just don’t take anything off the table up front, which it appears the administration has tried to do,” retired Gen. James Mattis, who served as head of Central Command from 2010 until his retirement in 2013, told the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

“Specifically, if this threat to our nation is determined to be as significant as I believe it is, we may not wish to reassure our enemies in advance that they will not see American ‘boots on the ground,’” he added. “If a brigade of our paratroopers or a battalion landing team of our Marines would strengthen our allies at a key juncture and create havoc/humiliation for our adversaries, then we should do what is necessary with our forces that exist for that very purpose.”

This is not the first time General Conway has criticized the White House. According toIJReview, in June, Conway blasted the exchange of five terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay for the suspected deserter and Taliban captive Bowe Bergdahl.

Coming under attack by American military leaders should be commonplace to Obama by now.

When Obama revealed to the world that “he didn’t have a strategy yet,” U.S. Army General Jack Keane said it was “an extraordinary and stunning admission coming from the leader of the world’s most powerful nation.” Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell bluntly told CBS that defeating ISIS leadership would come either by “capturing or killing them.” ~IJReview

With leading military and intelligence figures readily coming out against Obama’s ISIS tactics and the news that at least 40 Americans who fought for ISIS have returned to the U.S. with more Americans still being held hostage by the Islamic State, maybe it is time for President Obama to heed the advice of these leaders who actually have some military experience and have shaped United States foreign policy in the past. I’m sure if they needed some community organizing, Obama would come in handy. As for military strategy, let’s turn to those such as General Conway, who know a little about what they are talking about. 

http://madworldnews.com/marine-corps-obama-isis-strategy/

http://barracudabrigade.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-isis-threat-on-american-soil-its.html

http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/fresh-plot-to-bring-down-airplanes/

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/jeffcrouere/2014/09/21/funding-a-fools-errand-in-syria-n1894556

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/09/22/if-barack-hussein-obama-is-funding-the-so-called-moderate-rebels-of-the-free-syrian-army-he-is-funding-isis/