President Barack Obama’s surprising admission that his administration lacks a “complete strategy” to take on the Islamic State (ISIS) is “a little bit scary,” suggesting Obama is using “rhetoric in place of action,” former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden tells Newsmax TV.
In an interview with “Newsmax Prime” host J.D. Hayworth on Monday, the retired Air Force general declared “a lot of folks are beginning to lose patience here.”
“I get the part where you’ve got to get the Iraqis into your plan, but there are a lot more clear ways of saying that – ‘We’re going to have to synchronize our approach with the Iraqis, we’re going to have to harmonize our approach with the Iraqis’,” Hayden said.
“But to say we’re still in search of a strategy… nine months into combat operations, that is a little bit scary.”
Hayden said the president’s other comment – that the administration is “reviewing our plans” – was “also quite revealing.”
“That suggests rhetoric in place of action,” Hayden said. “That’s what you say when you really don’t want to get other things underway.”
Hayden said the remarks had to be “very unsettling” to our partners in the Middle East especially.
“The G7, some of those nations are helping us, and that’s a good thing, but what if you’re a Jordanian, what if you’re a Kurd, what if you’re a Saudi or a Kuwaiti?” he asked. “What do those things mean to you? I figured that would be actually very unsettling to our friends.”
The time is now for decisive action, he added.
“Some people … can be overly decisive, others can be overly reflective,” Hayden said.
“We’re at a point now where we might be admiring the problem a little bit too much and not getting along with solving it.”
Read more at NEWSMAX.
{Matzav.com}
