"Strategy" or "No Strategy"? Minutes after last night's admission by the President that "we don't have a strategy yet," the White House public relations department went into full damage control mode. Shameless spokesman Josh Earnest used the word "strategy" 33 times in a brief interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer and this morning the "clarifications" continue. As NBC reports [5], “The president hasn't yet laid out a specific plan for military action in Syria,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “And the reason for that is simply that the Pentagon is still developing that plan and he is still reviewing it.” This seems to us like yet another admission that there is 'no strategy' akin to being half pregnant.
Seemed pretty clear what he meant?
Word Cloud of CNN's Wolf Blitzer interview with Josh Earnest
[6]
But no - The White House says we just don't get it. [5]..
“The president hasn't yet laid out a specific plan for military action in Syria,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “And the reason for that is simply that the Pentagon is still developing that plan and he is still reviewing it.”
Obama drew criticism Thursday when he said “we don’t have a strategy yet” to strike Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria.
“The president was candid about the fact that the Pentagon is still reviewing options that may be available to him,” Earnest said.
He added that the U.S. has taken military action against ISIS in Iraq and that the U.S, has a comprehensive strategy that includes working with regional powers to stop the militants.
* * *
If you like your strategy, you can keep your strategy... or the dog ate it.
