Obama Demonstrates that He Still Doesn't Understand the Islamic State Threat

President Obama broke off his Martha’s Vineyard vacation today to address the situations in Iraq and in Ferguson, MO.

Responding to a question on Iraq and the possibility of “mission creep” there in an effort to deal with the Islamic State, Obama betrayed a lack of understanding of what the terrorist group is seeking in the short and long term.

QUESTION: Thank you. How do you avoid mission creep in Iraq? And how long do you think it’ll take to contain ISIL?

OBAMA: Well, I have been firm from the start that we are not reintroducing thousands of U.S. troops back on the ground to engage in combat. We’re not the Iraqi military, we’re not even the Iraqi air force. I am the commander in chief of the United States armed forces, and Iraq is gonna have to ultimately provide for its own security.

On the other hand, we’ve got a national security interest in making sure our people are protected and in making sure that a savage group that seems willing to slaughter people for no rhyme or reason other than they have not kowtowed to them, that a group like that is contained, because ultimately it can pose a threat to us.

The Islamic State has come to power a a self-declared caliphate despite the Obama administration’s protestations that such a thing would be “absurd.” The president evidently hasn’t learned from this failure to predict the enemy’s goals and actions.

In the quote above, Obama says that IS “seems willing to slaughter people for no rhyme or reason other than they have not kowtowed to them…”

That is not what IS is doing at all. They are not slaughtering “without rhyme or reason.” The Islamist army is targeting Christians, Yazidis and even fellow Muslims to eliminate them as threats, to consolidate their own power, and to serve as warning to anyone who stands in their way. IS is conducting its massacres with a serious purpose, and that purpose is by no means limited to Iraq or the Middle East. As the administration is aware.