EXCLUSIVE: Trump's plan to defeat ISIS calls for 'intensification' of same approach he derided under Obama, senior officials say
The ISIS plan that the Pentagon prepared at President Donald Trump’s request highlights four ‘next plays,’ say officials who've seen it, suggesting ‘acceleration’ in all of them, including support of Iraqi forces to capture Mosul and more help for local forces in Syria. Both of those efforts have been underway for nearly a year.
Trump’s Secret Plan to Beat ISIS Looks A Lot Like Obama’s
by CYNTHIA MCFADDEN and WILLIAM M. ARKIN
Donald Trump promised during the campaign to implement a "secret plan" to defeat ISIS, including a pledge to "bomb the hell out of" the terror group in Iraq and Syria.
Now, the Pentagon has given him a secret plan, but it turns out to be a little more than an "intensification" of the same slow and steady approach that Trump derided under the Obama administration, two senior officials who have reviewed the document told NBC News.
The plan calls for continued bombing; beefing up support and assistance to local forces to retake its Iraqi stronghold Mosul and ultimately the ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria; drying up ISIS's sources of income; and stabilizing the areas retaken from ISIS, the officials say.
Two prominent military strategists told NBC News they fear the plan is insufficient, and won't fulfill Trump's pledges to "totally obliterate ISIS" and do it quickly.
“[W]e’ve been attacking their fingers and their toes.”
"The current plan to defeat the Islamic State is just like that old saying: Plan B is just, 'Try harder at Plan A,'" said retired Admiral James Stavridis, an NBC News analyst. "We have not come up with new ways of approaching this. I would say the president might want to send that report back to his team to take another hard look."
Retired Air Force Gen. Dave Deptula, who planned the air campaign in the first Iraq war and is a vigorous advocate of conventional air power, insisted that the military should be directing more firepower at ISIS.
"If you view the Islamic state as a body, what's been going on with the current strategy is we've been attacking their fingers and their toes," said Deptula.
The bombing campaign against ISIS over the last two and half years, Deptula noted, has been commanded by Army generals. He says more air power is needed and that the Army should no longer be commanding the airstrikes against ISIS.
more:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-s-secret-plan-beat-isis-looks-lot-obama-s-n735171?cid=eml_nbn_20170317
DO SOMETHING!
| 
