Obama: We’re Not Going to Get ‘the Kind of Decisive, Permanent Victories’ Against Terrorism

RUSH EXCERPT:

OBAMA: "One of the things that I’ve learned, and I think we’ve all learned, is that we are not going to get the kind of decisive, permanent victories in this fight against terrorism that we would get from fighting another country. We’re not going to get that MacArthur/Emperor moment, because by definition, even after decimating Al Qaeda in the Fata, even after taking out bin Laden there’s still people there who have both the—the interest and the capacity if we don’t maintain vigilance to strike against the United States. And these are still countries that are fragile enough that we’re gonna have to partner with them in some way. But what we have done, I think, is build a model from a lot of hard lessons in Afghanistan and Iraq— but in other places around the world, where we are working with them in an advisory capacity. It still puts burden on some troops of ours who are there as advisors and facilitators. But we don’t have this huge footprint, we are less likely to be targeted as, you know, occupiers. And if you look at the current Mosul campaign again— against ISIL, for example the— the few thousand troops that we have there to support that effort allows the Iraqi military to move forward in an effective way. Now, would they do it as fast as if we had 50,000 or 100,000 Marines in there? Obviously not. But it does give us the ability to make sure that we are strengthening those folk who are interested in building up their countries rather than destroying them, and doing so in a way that is sustainable and doesn’t put a constant burden on the amazing men and women that we’ve got in uniform."