The Daily Beast quotes Rafik Hariri Center Resident Fellow Faysal Itani on how President Obama’s tone and rhetoric toward ISIS has shifted over the past year:
“We have indeed gone from ‘degrade and destroy’ to what is effectively a containment strategy,” said Faysal Itani of the Atlantic Council. “I believe this reflects the president’s assessment that destroying ISIS outright is either impossible at present, or would carry unacceptable political and military costs and risks.”
Itani said it’s difficult to gauge whether Obama “has always believed this and is now merely bringing his rhetoric in line with his belief, or whether he genuinely expected the anti-ISIS effort to go better than it has and was forced to abandon the ‘degrade and destroy’ mission.”