Obama: We underestimated ISIS

By Marisa Schultz and Bruce Golding-September 28, 2014 
America failed to recognize the threat posed by Islamic State terrorists and mistakenly relied on the hapless Iraqi army to combat them, President Obama admitted in an interview broadcast Sunday night.

In an about-face from earlier remarks that likened ISIS to a terrorist “JV team,” Obama told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he agreed with National Intelligence Director James Clapper’s recent assessment that “we underestimated the Islamic State.”

“Jim Clapper has acknowledged that I think they underestimated . . . what had been taking place in Syria,” Obama said.

The president also called it “absolutely true” that the United States put too much faith in the Iraqi army, whose soldiers turned tail rather than wage war against ISIS fighters invading from Syria.
Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province June 30, 2014.

Obama’s comments marked his bluntest acknowledgment that the United States bungled the initial response to ISIS, which American-led planes began bombing inside Syria this month.

Asked about the US carrying the weight of the anti-ISIS effort despite it being described as an international coalition, Obama said, “[T]hat’s always the case. America leads. We are the indispensable nation. We have capacity no one else has. Our military is the best in the history of the world.

“And when trouble comes up anywhere in the world, they don’t call Beijing. They don’t call Moscow. They call us,” the president said.

“That’s the deal … that’s how we roll. And that’s what makes this America.”

In a portion of the interview broadcast earlier Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Obama said ISIS has been “very savvy” in using social media to recruit believers in their “jihadist nonsense.”

He also noted that the bloodthirsty terrorist group includes “old remnants of Saddam Hussein’s military . . . which gave them some traditional military capacity and not just terrorist capacity. That’s why it’s so important for us to recognize part of our solution here is going to be military.”

Obama, whose interview was recorded Friday, also blamed the rift between Sunni and Shiite Muslims for “the biggest cause of conflict — not just in the Middle East, but in the world.”

Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner said he didn’t think that airstrikes alone can destroy ISIS, and that he’d recommend sending in American troops “if no one else will step up.”

“We have no choice,” the Republican told ABC’s “This Week.” “These are barbarians. They intend to kill us. And if we don’t destroy them first, we’re gonna pay the price.”

Boehner also said he believed that Obama had the authority under post-Sept. 11, 2001, resolutions to order the airstrikes that began inside Syria on Sept. 22, while Congress was out of session.

Also Sunday, the American military said US-led planes attacked four ISIS mobile oil refineries and a command-and-control center in Syria early in the day.

The raids were part of a “near continuous” bombing campaign to stanch the flow of fuel money to ISIS.