Keane: We’re ‘Getting Better’ in the Battle Against ISIS but We Still Have ‘Weak Hands’

“We are getting better. General Jim Terry … he’s not overstating the case. The fact is ISIS has not taken new territory in weeks and, in fact, we have retaken some territory ourselves ... We have made a policy decision ... to fight ISIS only. I think that has been a bad decision. It has long-term strategic implications making the fight in Syria much more challenging as a result of it because the forces that we’re trying to assist are being killed every day …

Even when we stand up the capability, I don’t believe it’s anywhere near what we could be providing. So this is a weak hand in Iraq on the ground indigenous forces, and we could make that hand considerably stronger if we put more resources into helping them. I’m not talking about ground combat troops. And that would make this thing go faster …

In the past, the way we run military operations is that guys in the Pentagon and in the field decide what the resources are that are required. In this case the White House made those decisions.”