The White House Just Took A Shot At Bill Kristol's Strategy Of Bombing ISIS
Kristol argued in a radio interview on Monday that President Barack Obama should consider "bombing them at least for a few weeks and seeing what happens," according to audio posted by Mediaite.
During a Friday afternoon media briefing, however, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest mocked the proposal. After one reporter grilled Earnest over why Obama lacks a concrete strategy for combating the jihadist group in Syria, Earnest, unprompted, pointed to Kristol's remarks as an example of what's "not ... a smart approach" towards the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
"The Pentagon is still developing military options for the president, for the commander-in-chief, to use against ISIL in Syria. There are some who probably would make the case that it's okay to not have a formulated, comprehensive strategy. But, just as one pundit I know recently suggested, that we can just go drop some bombs and see what happens. That is not what the president believes is a smart approach," Earnest said.
Kristol did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. But in an editorial set to be published in the Sept. 8 edition of the Weekly Standard, Kristol sharply criticized Obama's foreign policy vision in the region.
"[A]n American president who was serious about marshaling and mobilizing the elements of national power behind a strategy for victory could, we suspect, defeat the Islamic State more quickly and more easily than President Obama thinks. But President Obama doesn't have such a war strategy because he still doesn't want to accept that we're at war," Kristol wrote.