#Obama #US #IS – Obama: U.S. lacks ‘complete strategy’ to help Iraq fight IS – President Barack Obama, reprising a phrase that caused uproar in Washington last year, said on Monday the United States does not yet have a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi security forces to reconquer territory seized by Islamic State fighters.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on the sidelines of a Group of Seven (G7) nations summit in Germany, Obama said more progress was needed to stem the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq.
All countries in an international coalition waging an air campaign against the Sunni Islamist militants were ready to do more to train Iraqi security forces if that would help.
“We want to get more Iraqi security forces trained, fresh, well-equipped and focused and (Prime Minister) Abadi wants the same thing so we’re reviewing a range of plans for how we might do that,” Obama told a news conference.
“We don’t yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis as well about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place and so the details of that are not yet worked out.”
Obama was flayed by domestic critics last September after saying “we don’t have a strategy yet” to combat IS fighters in Syria after they beheaded a U.S. journalist on camera.
Western strategy in Iraq has come under fire again in recent weeks after Islamic State militants captured the city of Ramadi despite coalition air strikes designed to halt their advance and reverse their gains. Witnesses said Iraqi government forces abandoned their arms and fled.
However Obama and Abadi both said at their meeting they were confident that Islamic State’s success in Ramadi would be just a short-term tactical gain. Abadi said Iraq and its allies had won many rounds against IS and the loss in Ramadi was only temporary. He urged the international community to help prevent the militants from profiting from oil smuggling.
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