Being the opportunist that he is, Donald Trump tweeted this:
Obama did in fact say that, but it had something called context attached to it.
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America that was broadcasted Friday, President Obama said ISIS has been "contained."
"I don't think they're gaining strength," Obama said of ISIS. "What is true, from the start our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq and in Syria they'll come in, they'll leave. But you don't see this systemic march by ISIL across the terrain."
"What we have not yet been able to do is to completely decapitate their command and control structures. We've made some progress in trying to reduce the flow of foreign fighters and part of our goal has to be to recruit more effective Sunni partners in Iraq to really go on offense rather than simply engage in defense," the president said.
Of course, the right-wing answer to every thing is more war, more destruction, more alienation.
More "strength."
Tonight's Democratic debate has been revamped to address foreign policy and the attacks in Paris. All of the candidates have a careful path to walk. The easy answer is an absolute: No war; peace instead. The real answer will have far more nuance attached to it, and I expect Clinton and Sanders to address this nuance.
The right wing will continue to use these attacks to angle for more war in the Middle East. John McCain did everything but call for war right now and Jeb Bush tweeted an entire diatribe, beginning with this predictable tweet:
Republicans see this as an opportunity to gain ground in the election by appearing to be "strong," but real strength isn't beating the crap out of the other guy. It's finding a way to peacefully co-exist with him.
As for Donald Trump, someone ought to tell him he's not running against Barack Obama.
