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2015-09-23 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Obama's Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down
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President Barack Obama is about to lose the man he hand-picked to build the war effort against the Islamic State. Retired General John Allen will be stepping down as envoy to the global coalition this fall, and the White House is searching for a replacement to be the face of America’s flailing effort to destroy the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq.
Allen will leave government service in the coming weeks, four administration officials told us. State Department officials said they were not ready to officially announce Allen’s departure, but he has notified his superiors he will give up his job in early November, after serving just over one year. His chief of staff, Karin von Hippel, will also depart, to join a British think tank.
U.S. officials familiar with Allen's decision say he has been frustrated with White House micromanagement of the war and its failure to provide adequate resources to the fight. He unsuccessfully tried to convince the administration to allow U.S. tactical air control teams to deploy on the ground to help pick targets for air strikes in Iraq. Allen also tried several times to convince the White House to agree to Turkish demands for a civilian protection zone in Syria, to no avail.
Nonetheless, administration officials stress that Allen's decision to leave his post was motivated mainly by the health of his wife, who suffers from an auto-immune disorder.
Allen was successful in negotiating the deal whereby Turkey is now allowing the U.S. to use the Incirlik Air Base for air operations in Syria. But the broader campaign against the Islamic State has been stymied. The Turks recently launched an offensive not against the jihadists but against Kurdish separatists, who have been important allies to the U.S. on the ground. As Islamic State forces have expanded and consolidated territory in Syria, they have managed to keep control of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and expand into Ramadi, the heart of the 2007-08 Sunni-led rebellion against al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor organization to the Islamic State.
Finding someone to take the job won’t be easy. Just before he became Obama’s lead official in the fight against the Islamic State, Allen wrote an op-ed article in which he called the group a “clear and present danger to the U.S.” and said it “must be destroyed” quickly, using capabilities and power only the U.S. can bring to bear. Just over one year later, the president has yet to commit to a real plan to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State, as he has repeatedly said is his goal. Until that changes, Allen’s replacement will face the same roadblocks that he did, and the war against the Islamic State will continue to flounder.
When Allen was named to his post in September 2014, he initially planned on staying for six months. He agreed to stay on for another six at the request of Secretary of State John Kerry earlier this year. In the short term, his responsibilities are expected to be passed on to his deputy, Ambassador Brett McGurk. But the White House eventually wants to find a big-name replacement for Allen, who as a four-star Marine Corps general led the international force in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013.
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Posted by Pappy 2015-09-23 00:00||
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Posted by g(r)omgoru 2015-09-23 04:02||
2015-09-23 04:02||
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Posted by Besoeker 2015-09-23 05:34||
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Posted by ed in texas 2015-09-23 09:10||
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Posted by swksvolFF 2015-09-23 17:43||
2015-09-23 17:43||
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