Clemons: Obama’s Pentagon Speech ‘Sounded a Lot Like His Previous ISIS’ Speeches’
RIVERA: “Now back to the fight against ISIS. The topic of a Congressional hearing getting under way as we speak. President Obama said Monday is going to be a ‘generational struggle.’ Steve Clemons is Washington editor at large for The Atlantic and MSNBC contributor, Steve, nice to see you here.”
CLEMONS: “Good morning.”
RIVERA: “So yes, we heard about that -- Good morning -- we heard about that ‘generational struggle’ here that the president was talking about. He also said that the priority is to dislodge Islamic fighters from civilian populations by using coalition forces. Is there any evidence at all that shows that can happen?”
CLEMONS: “None that I have seen. I mean regrettably the president's speech yesterday that I think was very earnest and I think that he's serious, nonetheless, sounded a lot like his previous ISIS speeches. I think when you begin thinking about trying to dislodge ISIS fighters, you have to have the full support of that community, you have to have the full support of the region, and that's just not coming together.”
RIVERA: “Especially when he's talking about in his words, you know, this is not simply a military effort. Ideologies are not defeated by guns, they're defeated with better ideas. But would you think about that, another part of the plan was to train Syrian rebels when we're talking about something tangible here, not just the ideas. Yet we saw reports last week showing that fewer than 100 have been trained. In fact, the Associated Press saying this, that ‘The numbers are so low that critics question whether a meaningful moderate rebel ground force can be built in time to make a difference against the Islamic State.’ So, not a small issue, right, especially when you're talking about really just a handful, the number of 100?”
CLEMONS: “You’ve nailed it. It just really looks like an impossible equation right now. And to the point about better ideas, What we need to begin thinking about is what you do to give young men in that region jobs and aspirations out of that place that are going to contend with ISIS. We’re not doing that. On the issue of training and inserting moderate Syrian fighters, when you've got essentially two extremes, you've got the government of Bashar al Assad, and then you have ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups that essentially are the defining edge of the conflict there, it's kind of like you want to in the, you know, the form of Captain America, create a Captain Syria and just throw him in the middle and have him win. It’s a completely unrealistic equation.”
RIVERA: “The President also talked about winning hearts and minds when it comes to the strategy and this fight. Steve Clemons, as always, thank you very much.”
CLEMONS: “Thank you, Frances.”
