Is Obama Preparing to do NOTHING about ISIS- ISIL?

Barack Obama talks down prospect of imminent strikes in Syria

Republicans lambast the President after he admit White House "doesn't have a strategy yet" for taking on Islamic State

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President Barack Obama in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House Photo: AP



By Raf Sanchez, Washington
11:23PM BST 28 Aug 2014


President Barack Obama today admitted: "We don't have a strategy yet" to confront the Islamic State (Isil) as he poured cold water on the prospect of imminent US strikes against jihadists in Syria.

Despite weeks of American bombing missions against Sunni militants in Iraq, Mr Obama said that the White House had still not developed a broader plan for countering IS across the region.

While US drones are already carrying out surveillance in Syria, Mr Obama said that he was not ready to order strikes there and dramatically escalate America's involvement in the conflict.

"I don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t have a strategy yet," Mr Obama said when asked whether he would seek Congressional approval for striking in Syria.
His announcement was met with dismay from Republicans, who have accused the White House of failing to take a sufficiently aggressive line against IS, which now rules over around 8 million people in both Iraq and Syria.


"It just tells you that apparently we're not taking this seriously," said Mike Rogers, Republican chair of the House intelligence committee.

The President said that the US's current goals were "limited" and focused on "rolling back" the gains that jihadist forces had made inside Iraq and protecting American personnel inside the country.

He talked down suggestions that the US was "about to go full-scale on an elaborate strategy for defeating IS" in Syria. "That's not going to happen," he said.

Mr Obama instead laid out a more deliberative approach, dispatching John Kerry, the secretary of state, to the Middle East to rally Arab allies against IS.

He also said he was still asking the Pentagon for additional military options.
Mr Obama said the long-term defeat of IS was going "to require us to stabilise Syria in some fashion" but did not offer details.

He insisted that the West would not be forced into allying with the regime of Bashar al-Assad in order to fight the IS, a scenario feared by Syria's moderate rebels who are battling both the Syrian government and the jihadists.

"I don’t think there’s a situation where we have to choose between Assad or the kinds of people who carry on the incredible violence that we’ve been seeing there," he said.
Mr Obama kept open the possibility he would seek Congressional approval if he did decide to attack IS positions in Syria.

"As our strategy develops, we will continue to consult with Congress, and I do think that it’ll be important for Congress to weigh in," he said.

Submitting the decision to Congress risks a repeat of the situation Mr Obama faced last year when his plans to strike the Assad regime were met with widespread opposition by legislators.

The issue was never to put to a vote because Mr Obama withdrew the threat of strikes after Mr Assad agreed to destroy his chemical weapons stockpile.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/11062735/Barack-Obama-talks-down-prospect-of-imminent-strikes-in-Syria.html