Chuck Todd to Ben Rhodes (Deputy National Security Advisor) on MTP

[texas_ex2000]

On Meet the Press just now:

Todd: "What is it that you guys have gotten wrong in underestimating ISIS?"

Rhodes: "Well Chuck, I think we very clearly understand the threat from ISIL."

I transcribed that verbatim.

 

[Sangre Naranjada]

"We just don't feel like doing anything substantive about it."

 

[Seattle Husker]

Todd: "What is it that you guys have gotten wrong in underestimating ISIS?"

Rhodes: "Well Chuck, I think we very clearly understand the threat from ISIL."

Is it possible to understand the threat yet be helpless is trying to solve it?

 

[texas_ex2000]

Is it possible to understand the threat yet be helpless is trying to solve it?

Seattle, this administration has used the terms "J.V." and "contained" when describing ISIL.

Let's cut the BS.

 

[Seattle Husker]

They should be hammered for the J.V crap. Clearly the admin underestimated them and their ability to take and hold land in Iraq/Syria.

If you want to cut the BS then you should also admit the context of the "contained" statement was the geographic region they hold in Syria/Iraq. Are you willing to admit that or apply the contained comment to their ideology and reach in places like Paris too thus continuing the BS?

 

[texas_ex2000]

They should be hammered for the J.V crap. Clearly the admin underestimated them and their ability to take and hold land in Iraq/Syria.

If you want to cut the BS then you should also admit the context of the "contained" statement was the geographic region they hold in Syria/Iraq. Are you willing to admit that or apply the contained comment to their ideology and reach in places like Paris too thus continuing the BS?

They aren't "contained" geographically in Syria and Iraq.

They just massacred 130 people in the City of Light. They've also murdered a dozen people in the same city just 10 months ago. They brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt last month. Belgian police in January 2015 killed two members of an ISIS cell in Brussels. ISIS killed 22 tourists in a museum in Tunisia in March. Two ISIS gunmen attacked the cartoon contest in Dallas last May. Last December an ISIS gunman took 17 hostages in Sydney.

 

[Seattle Husker]

I thought you said you wanted to drop the BS then you don't include the context of the statement.

Again, the reference was to a specific geography to address concerns for boots on the ground in Syria/Iraq then you bring up every terrorist group in the world that gains cache from claiming affiliation with ISIS? You're bathing in BS.

 

[Horn6721]

Husker
Your boy BO also said in same interview ISIS was not getting stronger.Do you agree with him?

 

[zork]

I believe there were two gunman in Garland from ISIS that didn't make it into the venue.

 

[texas_ex2000]

I thought you said you wanted to drop the BS then you don't include the context of the statement.

Again, the reference was to a specific geography to address concerns for boots on the ground in Syria/Iraq then you bring up every terrorist group in the world that gains cache from claiming affiliation with ISIS? You're bathing in BS.

Husker, all of those I cited were operations avowed by Raqqa. And yes, there should be boots on the ground in Syria because ISIS is definitively not "contained" to any specific geography. You're buying Rhodes' (a speechwriter and communications hack) backpedalling talking points hook, line, and sinker.

If I was still in the IC and briefed my admiral or director that ISIL is "contained" in any context, I would be laughed out of the room and then assigned to process security clearances in the boiler room for the rest of my soon to be concluding career.

Your perspective on what is and isn't a terrorist operation is an antiquated pre-globalization paradigm. If the Administration shares that perspective and makes policies off of that paradigm...well it explains a lot.

 

[Seattle Husker]

Husker, all of those I cited were operations avowed by Raqqa. And yes, there should be boots on the ground in Syria because ISIS is definitively not "contained" to any specific geography. You're buying Rhodes' (a speechwriter and communications hack) backpedalling talking points hook, line, and sinker.

If I was still in the IC and briefed my admiral or director that ISIL is "contained" in any context, I would be laughed out of the room and then assigned to process security clearances in the boiler room for the rest of my soon to be concluding career.

Your perspective on what is and isn't a terrorist operation is an antiquated pre-globalization paradigm. If the Administration shares that perspective and makes policies off of that paradigm...well it explains a lot.

No offense but I suspect accuracy was very important in your honored work in intelligence. If so, you would likely be laughed out of the room for misrepresenting the context of the quote.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...barack-obama-said-about-isis-being-contained/

Obama: "Well, no, I don't think they're gaining strength. What is true is that from the start our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq. And in Syria they'll come in, they'll leave. But you don't see this systematice march by ISIL across the terrain. What we have not yet been able to do is to completely decapitate the their command and control structures."

 

[texas_ex2000]

No offense but I suspect accuracy was very important in your honored work in intelligence. If so, you would likely be laughed out of the room for misrepresenting the context of the quote.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...barack-obama-said-about-isis-being-contained/

No Seattle, you lose all credibility with war fighters and decisions makers by managing and playing with "optics."

 

[Seattle Husker]

No Seattle, you lose all credibility with war fighters and decisions makers by managing and playing with "optics."

Seriously? I prove you took the quote out of context and that's your response? I'll let this die but I thought you of all people would be man enough to say "I was wrong to take the quote of out context but I disagree with the Obama Admin strategy". At this point I'll assume the passion is clouding your rational thought.

 

[texas_ex2000]

Seattle,

I type these on my phone at work when I run downstairs for a coffee. I don't have the time to always go into a full on in-depth point on point discussion. On the weekends, sure. But I can't go there all the time.

Obama: "Well, no, I don't think they're gaining strength.

They are gaining strength. They're getting bigger and expanding their operations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/w...-global-efforts.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

What is true is that from the start our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them.

They are definitively not contained. They move between Syria and Iraq. They have expanded into global operations. They have taken down a Russian airliner. Front page of WSJ.com is a photo of Abdelhamid Abaaoud holding a Quran and the ISIS flag in Syria. Abaaoud was the ringleader of the Paris massacres and the French just killed him on Tuesday in Saint Denis. Maybe if we could have got him in Syria things could have gone differently.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/abdelha...cks-is-dead-french-prosecutor-says-1447937255

Long before the Paris onslaught, he guided militants, including a French national and former Islamic State jailer who returned to Europe to launch a May 2014 assault rifle attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium, killing four.

Western intelligence regarded Mr. Abaaoud as such a large threat that they mounted unsuccessful attempts to kill him in airstrikes.

They are more dangerous now, then they were 18 months ago. See my previous points and the following:

They have not gained ground in Iraq.

Because they've already captured Mosul and Tikrit. And now have moved on to Syria. That's not containment.

And in Syria they'll come in, they'll leave.

That means they're not contained. That's called a sanctuary.

But you don't see this systematice march by ISIL across the terrain.

Yet, they've taken Mosul, Tikirt, and somehow move in and out of Syria at will. And they keep growing.

What we have not yet been able to do is to completely decapitate the their command and control structures."

I agree with this at least.

Rhodes helps Obama with his talking points. Rhodes is not an intelligence professional nor a military officer. He is a speechwriter by trade. His job is optics.

It's why the Secretary of State tells her daughter AQ attacked the Benghazi embassy but tells everyone else it was a spontaneous crowd responding to a video on the internet.