LOC22:43
19:43 GMT
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (KUNA) -- The Obama Administration has no identifiable strategy against the group known as ISIL, or ISIS, and the president's talk of "containment ... is really a joke," the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday.
In an interview on Fox News, North Carolina Republican Senator Richard Burr admitted that no "credible, specific" threats to the US have been detected so far, but "it's proven that ISIS is in 30 different countries, they control eight provinces of countries. They've got a reach that goes throughout Europe and North America."
He slammed President Barack Obama's lack of a strategy in fighting the group.
"Talk about containment is really a joke. The reality is that ISIS may be geographically contained in Syria and Iraq, but their efforts around the world to project terrorism and to commit terrorism is as robust today as it's ever been," he affirmed.
"We have no strategy. I don't think you can find anybody in the world outside of the Administration that could attempt to state what America's strategy is," he added.
"It's time for an international coalition to come in and arm groups like the Kurds to create a safe haven, a no-fly zone, where we can stop the refugee flight out of Syria. But only with American leadership will that happen," Burr said.
Meanwhile, former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served under both George W. Bush and Obama, said sending US troops into Syria to fight ISIL "is not a near-term solution," and that it is also unlikely the Saudis or the Turks will send in their soldiers due to their differing agendas inside Syria.
"I think while ISIS is a long-term problem for us, we have near-term issues associated with it. All you have to do is look at the downing of the Russian airliner and the attacks in Paris and the attacks in Beirut and so on," Gates told the NBC program Meet The Press.
"So we have a near term problem that needs to be addressed or a near-term challenge from ISIS that needs to be addressed, but when I hear people talk about a completely different strategy, I don't know what that is," he said.
"Putting tens of thousands of US troops in there is not a near-term solution. It would take months and months, even if you decided you wanted to do it, to put the logistics in place, get the troops trained and so on and then I'm not sure they don't aggravate the problem," he explained.
"You're not going to have combat formations coming out of Raqqa (in Syria) wearing ISIS uniforms to confront American troops. They're going to melt into a population of several hundred thousand people or more broadly," he warned.
Whatever strategy the Obama Administration pursues, both Saudi Arabia and Turkey have to be on board with the plan, Gates said.
"We have to be on board with them in terms of priorities. And I think we need to look at what they are trying to accomplish, what their goals are ... most of these countries have another agenda. The Saudis are mostly worried about Iran, the Turks more about the Kurds," he affirmed.
"But they're both united in the fact that (Syrian President Bashar Al) Assad has to go before you can make progress against ISIS. I think we need to listen to them if we want them to be active and aggressive members of the coalition," Gates said.
"But the reality is ... you hear people talk about sending combat formations from Arab nations into Iraq to fight ISIS, that's just not going to happen. First, they are not going to send their troops, not willing to send their troops, but second the Iraqis probably wouldn't allow them to come anyway," he acknowledged.
"You've gotten an Iranian influenced government in Baghdad and the notion that they would invite Saudi or Gulf state troops into their country to fight what is an internal fight in their eyes I think is very unrealistic," he said. (end)
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