U.S. Special Services Are Critical On White House Rules of Engagement Against The Islamic State

US Special Troops Battalion (Reuters / Peter Andrews)

Kimberly Dozier: Special Ops to Obama: Let Us Fight ISIS, Already

They’re supposed to be at the forefront of the battle against ISIS. But U.S. special operators say the Obama administration’s restrictive rules of war are harming their mission.

TAMPA, Florida — Fighting simmering frustration in their ranks over ISIS advances in Iraq and Syria, top U.S. special operations commanders say they are building forces for a multi-generational fight—not a war that will be won in the next few years.

“We recognize this is a longterm prospect,” said Gen. Joseph Votel, the overall leader of U.S. Special Operations Command, in remarks to The Daily Beast during a special operations forum in Tampa. “We’re patient.”

“We talk about it being a 15-year struggle,” added Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, who heads the Air Force Special Operations Command, said describing the fight.

WNU Editor: It sound like many in the military are not satisfied with White House strategy in combating the Islamic State. What is also disturbing (but probably accurate) is this comment in the Daily Beast post on how long the war against the Islamic State will probably last ....

.... While some of the special operations commanders at the conference privately voiced concern over ISIS’s recent advances, they all said this will be a decades-long war that requires a lot more than U.S. military firepower to win.

Decades-long war .... let that sink in.