Obama on fighting Islamic State: 'It will take time to root them out'

WASHINGTON — Critics of the Obama administration’s war policy have tended to focus on what more the Pentagon could be doing in the fight against the Islamic State (IS): sending over more weapons, say, and more trainers – and perhaps, for good measure, even some US troops to help foreign forces more accurately target the enemy in Syria and Iraq. 

Flanked Monday by America’s top military officer, Gen. Martin Dempsey, as well as other brass including Gen. Joseph Votel, head of US Special Operations Command, President Obama was most interested in once again emphasizing his belief that this approach is a non-starter. Many of the Pentagon’s top officials back him in this assessment.

Billed as the chance to bat around “what’s working, and what we can do better” against IS with his national security team, Mr. Obama’s Pentagon briefing following this meeting with military officials was his first since last October. 

Read the full article at The Christian Science Monitor.