Military Told Obama What He Wanted to Hear

Military Told Obama What He Wanted to Hear

The news that the Inspector General of the Department of Defense is investigating charges that members of the military have compiled skewed intelligence assessments of U.S. actions against ISIS is a disturbing development in the war against the terrorist movement. But it shouldn’t come as much of a shock to those who have watched the desultory effort to make good on the pledge that President Obama made nearly a year ago that the U.S. would "degrade and ultimately destroy" ISIS. Though no one in the White House is implicated in what is being treated as a military rather than a political problem, the administration shouldn’t be allowed to pretend that it is the victim here. If military intelligence has been feeding the president misleading analyses about the impact of American bombing on ISIS targets, it is probably more the result of officers wishing to tell the president what he wants to hear rather than pure incompetence. Just as the Bush administration was blamed for the bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction that gave officials the conclusions they wished to draw, if the U.S. Central Command has been producing material that allowed Obama to act as if his efforts are succeeding, it’s likely because they have been given the clear impression that this is what the top echelon wants.

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