Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That Done

In an interview with National Public Radio on Sunday, retired Army Gen. Jack Keane said that the U.S. military could defeat the Islamic State if the commander-in-chief asks for and implements its plan.

“The military knows how to fight a war,” Keane said. “And I told [Trump] - if you're going to do what you suggest - said you were going to do and ask for a campaign plan from the Pentagon for how to defeat ISIS, believe me, you'll get a comprehensive campaign plan with many options in it that this president has never asked for.”

Keane said that, in fact, Obama routinely did not take the advice given to him by the military or, if taken, “reduced” those recommendations.

Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That Done

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What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

I never believed for a moment that the Obama administration was candid in its desire to defeat ISIS and curb extremism in the Middle East, and this is coming from a staunch and outspoken opponent of the right wing and of Trump alike.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

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Funny, I just used the Peter Principle to describe the incompetent-in-chief in another thread yesterday... O bomb a is the poster boy. He has been the epitome of the empty suit.

But in this instance, I can really find no other than more insidious reasons why he would not, with our very willing to protect America and Americans gung ho military, make real attempts at putting to rest these vile and openly terrorist forces threatening the entire world.

Anybody on the other side want to dispel the idea of incompetence and tell us why he would then be so capricious about American security?

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

You are so naive.
$6 trillions and thousands of US lives wasted on Arabs, is it not enough?
You want to spend another trillion to do a job that behooves the Iraqi and the Syrians to do?
Militarily it's not a problem to snuff out a handful of jihadis. But the real challenge begins afterwards: how will the Arabs settle their political infighting.
And for the time being the Arab political leaders aren't prepared to do so. Should the US decide to put boots on the ground, every neighboring country will be eager to play their personal card thereby undermining the US agency: Pakistan in Afghanistan, Iran in Irak, Turkey and Saudi Arabia in Syria.
ISIS is an arab swamp, and it should be drained only by the arabs themselves not by already vilified foreigners.
It takes time only because each country wants to defend its own turf and is not ready to compromise.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

t4pi0k4 said:

You are so naive.
$6 trillions and thousands of US lives wasted on Arabs, is it not enough?
You want to spend another trillion to do a job that behooves the Iraqi and the Syrians to do?
Militarily it's not a problem to snuff out a handful of jihadis. But the real challenge begins afterwards: how will the Arabs settle their political infighting.
And for the time being the Arab political leaders aren't prepared to do so. Should the US decide to put boots on the ground, every neighboring country will be eager to play their personal card thereby undermining the US agency: Pakistan in Afghanistan, Iran in Irak, Turkey and Saudi Arabia in Syria.
ISIS is an arab swamp, and it should be drained only by the arabs themselves not by already vilified foreigners.
It takes time only because each country wants to defend its own turf and is not ready to compromise.

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I agree with the bolded whole heartidly. IMO, the U.S. should withdraw any intervention in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and let the Arabs take care of ISIS. U.S. intervention has done NOTHING but cause chaos and at best, only put a chain on a beast we would have to continue to pay with lives and money to keep at bay without solving the actual problem.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

I wonder how many retired Generals sit around wondering ~ I bet I could have been heroic.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

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The kind who made part of his campaign promises getting out of the middle east ASAP?

The kind who thinks that maybe it's time for the arab world to deal with their dirty laundry?

It's amazing how quickly people forget (or how easily they choose to lie about) how utterly sick of seeing young men die and trillions disappear in pointless and failed wars of choice in the middle east.






Nevermind that even the people who said we should stay in Iraq did so because they didn't want sectarian violence within Iraq to flare back up. Nobody predicted that a rebel group in Syria would decide to form a caliphate and invade portions of Iraq. And I'll say the same thing again even if there is another huge terror attack on America.





2014 causes of death:

Heart disease: 614,348
• Cancer: 591,699
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 147,101
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 136,053
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 133,103
• Alzheimer's disease: 93,541
• Diabetes: 76,488
• Influenza and pneumonia: 55,227
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 48,146
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 42,773



Notice how those numbers are bigger than all terrorism-related deaths ever in the U.S.? And that they're just in one year? Now compare the scale of our approach to fighting terrorism to fighting any one, indeed even all of them combined. Answer: We spent more blood and money fighting terror.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

Mr Person said:

The kind who made part of his campaign promises getting out of the middle east ASAP?

The kind who thinks that maybe it's time for the arab world to deal with their dirty laundry?

It's amazing how quickly people forget (or how easily they choose to lie about) how utterly sick of seeing young men die and trillions disappear in pointless and failed wars of choice in the middle east.






Nevermind that even the people who said we should stay in Iraq did so because they didn't want sectarian violence within Iraq to flare back up. Nobody predicted that a rebel group in Syria would decide to form a caliphate and invade portions of Iraq. And I'll say the same thing again even if there is another huge terror attack on America.


2014 causes of death:

Heart disease: 614,348
• Cancer: 591,699
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 147,101
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 136,053
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 133,103
• Alzheimer's disease: 93,541
• Diabetes: 76,488
• Influenza and pneumonia: 55,227
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 48,146
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 42,773



Notice how those numbers are bigger than all terrorism-related deaths ever in the U.S.? And that they're just in one year? Now compare the scale of our approach to fighting terrorism to fighting any one, indeed even all of them combined. Answer: We spent more blood and money fighting terror.

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Glenn Beck did in 2011.
Beck Predicts New Muslim Caliphate Will "Control The Mideast And Parts Of Europe"

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

Why would he ask for invasions plans for a region he didn't intend to invade?

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

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How many troops on the ground does it call for?
10 K, 40 k, how many US Soldiers dead?
The US public is tired of the US and military intervention or did this fellow miss that???

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

Keane was a Bush guy. He was't involved with Obama at all.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

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Hillary never had a plan to replace the government in Libya. These establishment candidates only care about destroying people's lives not helping them.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

coldjoint said:

Glenn Beck did in 2011.
Beck Predicts New Muslim Caliphate Will "Control The Mideast And Parts Of Europe"

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And NAZI's were rampant, hiding under everyones bed.
Glen Beck as a source. Digging deep into xxxxxxxxxxxx

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

Click to expand...

Oh goody, trump is going to get us back even deeper into the ME.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

Click to expand...

Oh Jeez...what an idiot this General is.

A) you cannot defeat ISIS. You cannot kill every member - and so long as a few survive, ISIS survives. Terrorist organizations disband...they are never destroyed completely (unless they are a tiny group and you kill/capture ALL of them).

B) Dragging America even deeper into the Middle East is EXACTLY what 9/11 was all about. ISIS would LOVE America to come after them. That way they can increase recruiting two, three or four fold as the hatred for American meddling and killing grows throughout the region.

C) What goes on in the Middle East is NONE OF AMERICA'S BUSINESS. No attack on American soil by ISIS directly has happened yet (9/11 was al Qaeda - NOT ISIS/ISIL). Some attacks were carried out by whackos who had nothing directly to do with ISIS - but just had sympathy for them.

D) If ISIL - as opposed to ISIS - does attack America directly AND takes credit for it. Fine...then you bomb them back to the stone age (but only from the air - NO TROOPS); because since ISIL is supposedly a nation, that would be an act of war against America. But ISIS is NOT a nation, they are a terrorist organization.

E) It is America's dumb ass Operation Iraqi Freedom that created (indirectly) ISIL/ISIS in the first place as much of it's higher ups are made up of ex-Iraqi officers who were drummed out when that utter moron Paul Bremer disbanded the Iraqi military and put hundreds of thousands of armed men on the streets.


Leave the Middle East to fight it's own battles...every time America gets involved, all it does is **** things up FAR, FAR more.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

JANFU said:

And NAZI's were rampant, hiding under everyones bed.
Glen Beck as a source. Digging deep into xxxxxxxxxxxx

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Someone said no one predicted it it. I don't care what you think of Beck. It is irrelevant to his prediction.

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coldjoint said:

Someone said no one predicted it it. I don't care what you think of Beck. It is irrelevant to his prediction.

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But a caliphate doesn't control what he said they'd control.

Unless you're doing some dumb "evil genie interpretation" thing where there's an ISIS guy who owns a house in France therefore ISIS controls part of Europe.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I listened to that interview. The Rachel Martin asked him to respond to Trump's comment that he knew more than the generals, and Keane went on to babble incoherently for several minutes. It was clear he was cold-fishing for a narrative that could get him out of this pickle, and then he landed on "Obama" and was like, "Aha!" He then claimed hilariously that Obama never accepted a plan. I was like, sure, I believe that. At least he didn't have to directly say "Trump was retarded for claiming he knew more about military matters." which of course was the only correct answer.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

Cardinal said:

Yeah, I listened to that interview. The Rachel Martin asked him to respond to Trump's comment that he knew more than the generals, and Keane went on to babble incoherently for several minutes. It was clear he was cold-fishing for a narrative that could get him out of this pickle, and then he landed on "Obama" and was like, "Aha!" He then claimed hilariously that Obama never accepted a plan. I was like, sure, I believe that.

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Obama never accepted a plan that would destroy ISIS. We certainly had the means.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

coldjoint said:

Obama never accepted a plan that would destroy ISIS.

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Sure. Five years of ISIS and Obama wasn't interested in a plan that would get rid of them. Okay.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

Cardinal said:

Sure. Five years of ISIS and Obama wasn't interested in a plan that would get rid of them. Okay.

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Why are they still here?

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

coldjoint said:

Why are they still here?

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Coalition forces are taking back Iraq and we've bombed over a thousand targets since June.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

zimmer said:

What type of President does not ask for plans, for all options to defeat the enemy?

It's inconceivable, but with the amount of incompetence we've witnessed during the past 8-years, it is not surprising at all.

So much of this job was way above his pay grade. He is the definition of The Peter Principle. Simply in way above his head.

Click to expand...

Obama doesn't see the terrorists as the enemy. Most of us knew that in 2007 when the joker first showed up on the scene.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

Cardinal said:

Coalition forces are taking back Iraq and we've bombed over a thousand targets since June.

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They could have been wiped out completely years ago.

Re: Gen. Keane on Defeating ISIS: Obama Never Asked Military for a Plan to Get That D

coldjoint said:

Obama never accepted a plan that would destroy ISIS. We certainly had the means.

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Probably because 'the plan' was flawed and beyond the resources and will of the American People. One thing armchair warriors need to remember is REAL war isn't a board game where costs don't matter, where the will of the people isn't factored in. The Military routinely comes up with scenarios where we face everything from an angry teenager having a melt down over a boy to thermonuclear war. (Neither have a good ending for the civilians- a single family to 3/4ths of the USofA population)

We don't have the means- Neo-Cons deluded themselves into thinking they had the 'key' to unlock the Vietnam Syndrome- they in fact were doomed to repeat the same folly- spending thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Of course some will insist 'if only we stayed with thousands of combat troops' we could have 'won'.

But the bitter fact is we would have 'won' at the price of a bankrupt nation and a gutted Military- plenty of Generals but a distinct lack of privates, and senior NCOs. Of course Generals think they can win any war they face, but history proves otherwise... eace