Since President Obama put forth his “comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy” to “degrade” and “destroy” ISIS last week, his administration has struggled to form a consensus as to whether or not we are actually at war with the terror group. On radio this morning, Glenn made a bold declaration: The United States is not preparing for war with ISIS. It is preparing for war with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Make no mistake. We are not at war with ISIS. We are a nation at war or preparing to go to war with Assad, period. That's what's happening,” Glenn said definitively. “The President wanted to go to war with Assad. He wanted to destabilize the region with that dictator and get him out of there. And that's exactly what's happening.”
The White House has publically warned the Assad regime not to interfere with U.S. airstrikes in the region. During an appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation, Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. will not “cooperate” with the Syrian government.
"We're not going to coordinate it with Syria," Kerry said. "We will certainly want to de-conflict and make certain that they're not about to do something that they might regret even more seriously. But we're not going to coordinate, it's not a cooperative effort. We're going to do what they haven't done, what they had plenty of opportunity to do, which is to take on ISIL and to degrade it and eliminate it as a threat."
Additionally, Obama held a closed door meeting with a “group of visitors” last week during which he explained what he would do if was an “advisor to ISIS.” The contents of that conversation have since been leaked.
“The White House advisors just leaked one of the most damning things I ever heard the President say – any president say,” Glenn said.
The New York Times, citing “several people who were in the meeting,” reports that the president claimed Islamic State terrorists made a serious strategic mistake by murdering the hostages. He then reportedly revealed what he would’ve suggested if he had been “an adviser to ISIS.” The discussion reportedly occurred just before his primetime address to the nation on the Islamic State threat.
Obama said he would have released the hostages and pinned notes to their chests that urged the United States, “Stay out of here; this is none of your business,” according to the Times report. If the terrorists had done that, Obama reportedly argued, the group may have been able to diminish public support for U.S. military action.
“That was intentionally released. This is a president who does not want to engage in any of this stuff,” Glenn explained. “So he's saying, ‘Look, guys, we don't want do fight you… But what you're doing is pissing off the American people, and I have to do something’… That's what's happening.”
But perhaps the most important piece of this puzzle is the fact that part of Obama’s counter-terrorism strategy involves the arming and training of “moderate” Syrian rebels.
The only problem?
New reports indicate those same rebels have signed a nonaggression agreement with ISIS, in which "the two parties will respect a truce until a final solution is found and they promise not to attack each other because they consider the principal enemy to be the Nussayri regime."
Glenn believes if the Obama Administration was actually serious about defeating ISIS it would be arming and aiding the Kurdish Peshmerga forces that are the moderate force in the region.
“Why aren’t we arming the Kurds? If you want to arm someone, you arm the Kurds,” Glenn said. “You don't arm the Muslim extremists.”
But, again, Obama’s goal is not to decimate ISIS. Rather, he is looking to organize the Middle East.
“[But] this isn't really about the Kurds. This isn't really about ISIS. This is about Assad,” he concluded. “Hear me, these are the words of the President: Organizing the Middle East. If you want to organize the Middle East, you have to get rid of the dictators. This is a target on Assad. Make no mistake.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP
