Obama Faults War General’s 2014 Assessment of ISIS Upon His Departure

Shifting blame to the general

On Wednesday, Army General Lloyd Austin turned over command of U.S. forces fighting ISIS as he prepared for his retirement.

At the ceremony, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter heaped praise on Gen. Austin, a West Point graduate and recipient of the Silver Star for gallantry in battle.

As CentCom leader for three years, he has directed operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and kept watch on an expansionist Iran in the Persian Gulf.

General Austin is truly an example of a committed, dedicated leader who has performed marvelously. But in a recent interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic magazine, Mr. Obama tried to tar the general and evade blame for his own poor choice of words and actions. The article said, in part:

“Early in 2014, Obama’s intelligence advisers told him that ISIS was of marginal importance. According to administration officials, General Lloyd Austin, then the commander of Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, told the White House that the Islamic State was ‘a flash in the pan.’ This analysis led Obama, in an interview with The New Yorker, to describe the constellation of jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria as terrorism’s ‘jayvee team.'”

The quote clearly showed the White House was shifting blame from Mr. Obama to Gen. Austin, a 40-year Army combatant, leader and commander, as he went out the door.

Gen. Austin, through his public affairs office at U.S. Central Command, has denied ever making such a remark.

His supporters point out that, as the last four-star general to leave Iraq in December 2011, he had recommended to the White House that more than 20,000 American troops remain in the country because the gains there were reversible.

Mr. Obama has a track record of shifting blame. For example, when the White House plan to train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State failed, he told an interviewer that he always knew it would not work.

Mr. Obama is a small and petty man. He is also a liar, and has only survived his constant prevarications due to a compliant and biased press that reports his words with little or no analysis or validation. It is an outrage that Obama would sully General Austin’s record and his recommendations, but it is what Obama does without a second thought.

He made a similar attempt recently when he blamed Congress for inaction against ISIS when it became clear that they were gaining strength and territory and the American people were becoming restive with the failure to control the Jihadi’s. He has also been embarrassed that terrorist events are on wide display as he travels the globe vacationing and playing golf as ISIS spread death and destruction throughout the world.

General Austin will be remembered as a patriot and a soldiers-soldier who led his troops with dedication and integrity. It is hard to say how Obama will be remembered, but I doubt that history will treat him kindly as he fades into the past. And if one word is all that is permitted to represent his legacy, it could very well be “liar.”

Source: washingtontimes.com