President Obama said that the U.S. intelligence community initially underestimated the Islamic State and its stronghold in Syria.
“Jim Clapper has acknowledged that they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” Obama said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that will air Sunday night, referencing the director of intelligence, James Clapper.
Obama then said that the U.S. address militant groups that gain strength during civil war and conflicts throughout the Middle East between Sunnis and Shiites.
“This is one of the challenges were going to have generally: when you have states that are failing or in the midst of civil war, these kinds of organizations thrive,” he said. “What we also have to do is come up with political solutions, in Iraq and Syria in particular, but in the Middle East generally, that arise an accommodation between Sunni and Shia populations that right now are the biggest cause of conflict, not just in the Middle East, but in the world.”
Two years ago there was no such thing as ISIS but we ignored the Syrian civil war while the problem got bigger.
Hate to be pedantic, but could we possibly replace the foregoing with, well, an actual coherent sentence?
Also, I believe the sixth word in what purports to be a direct quote of something said by the President of the United States should be “we’re” not “were.”
Hint,Maybe ?
“Hawks in Congress argue that the Islamic State threat shows the folly of
cutting military spending. Speaking at a conference Thursday, Rep.
Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), who chairs the House Armed
Services Committee, said funding cuts had “hollowed out” America’s armed
forces.”
Obama’s interview will be on 60 Minutes tonight. It would be far better to listen to him than read what this reporter writes about it.
It seems U.S. intelligence has had a long string of failures, perhaps ever since the founding of the CIA. Some of the failures may have been supported by another failure: the failure of Presidents effectively to administer CIA.