The cascade of crises is leading some to ask if the president is becoming predictable to adversaries such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hes clearly playing off the reality that the United States is eyeball-deep in another crisis in the Middle East, retired Lt. Gen. David Barno said of Putin. Aside from the political pressure for decisive action against ISIS from lawmakers of both parties, Obama must deal with the fact that the Islamist extremist group is an immediate threat to the safety of U.S. troops and diplomats advising Iraqi Arab and Kurdish leaders, as well as captured journalist Steven Sotloff. The group has already killed U.S. journalist James Foley. Though he admitted Thursday that we dont have a strategy yet, Obama convened a National Security Council meeting to discuss measures for dealing with ISIS, saying before the meeting that my priority at this point is to make sure that the gains that [ISIS] made in Iraq are rolled back, and that Iraq has the opportunity to govern itself effectively and secure itself. Meanwhile, Obama deferred further action on Ukraine until next weeks NATO summit in Britain and stopped short of calling Russias action an invasion, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described it. But Barno, a former U.S. commander in Afghanistan who is now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, noted that U.S. priorities could change overnight. This is an extraordinarily volatile situation.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 11:35:51 +0000
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