President Barack Obama's announcement that he will not use ground forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) is a "ridiculous strategy," says Republican strategist Phillip Stutts.
"He repeats this over and over . . . that he will not put boots on the ground," Stutts told John Bachman and Miranda Khan on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV Tuesday.
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"He said it with Ukraine, he's now saying it in Iraq," said the former campaign manager for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
"I'm not advocating boots on the ground, and I don't think any Republican is advocating boots on the ground, other than what the generals are asking for, which is a minimum amount of Special Forces troops on the ground to help and assist the Iraqis," he explained.
"The problem is when you take that off the table the enemy knows what you're going to do," he said.
"We already know that ISIS is starting to move weapons into hot population areas because they know that the airstrikes that have been telegraphed by this president are not going to be hitting high population areas," he added.
"So he did give too much, I mean it's a ridiculous strategy, if that's what you call it," Stutts said.
Democratic strategist Joe Lestingi told Newsmax TV that "this is probably going to go down in history . . . as one of the best moments in our history."
The senior political strategist from The Chadderon Group said he believes this because in the end we will have "secured a threat overseas and did not commit troops there to fight and die for this."
"This is good, this is a sound strategy and those who oppose it are just opposing the president in general," he explained
"General [Stanley] McChrystal himself has come out and said, 'it's time to get behind the president and support these policies because when we are divided the world looks at us and says the U.S. is divided and we should unite,'" he said.
"His opinion matters," he added.
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