“Our Priorities are Way Out of Whack,” Says O’Neill
There Is No Strategy — President “Doubling Down on Failure.”
Maybe his recent speech at the National Counterterrorism Center was meant to put Americans at ease. But after hearing what President Obama had to say, former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill was anything but reassured.
He shared his reaction — and suggestions for preventing terrorist attacks — on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”
Highlights of their exchange:
Van Susteren: “Listening to the President’s speech, what did he achieve?
O’Neill: “I don’t think he achieved much. He’s just doubling down on failure. He’s bringing up nothing new…just saying what we’ve been doing is going to continue to work. It’s not that hard to see what’s coming. We need to get to a spot where we’re identifying the enemy and getting the right intelligence in the right place.”
Van Susteren: “What would you do? You actually have on the ground experience. Tell me what you’d do?”
O’Neill: “One of the keys is human intelligence. There are imams that want to report on radicals in their mosque. There are Muslims in their mosques that see radicals and want to report it. We need to have people with actionable intelligence in these mosques telling us who’s being radicalized. I’m starting to see a pattern here. It’s radical Islam. We need help from the Muslims that don’t want it to happen.”
Van Susteren: “He (President Obama) seems committed to an air attack against ISIS. He’s very reluctant to do anything else.”
O’Neill: “He’s committed to the air because he doesn’t want to get bogged down. He can maintain that until someone else takes the office.”
Van Susteren: “Do you hear anyone saying no Rob you’re wrong, this is a good idea.”
O’Neill: “As far as the airstrikes?”
Van Susteren: “As far as the President’s strategy.”
O’Neill: “There is no strategy. We’ve got pilots who are dropping leaflets an hour before they drop bombs. Sometimes they don’t even drop bombs, one because the rules of engagement are so strict the pilots don’t want to go to jail for collateral damage. I’m not making this up. They can’t drop sometimes because of the effect it’ll have on the environment. When you start bringing in this climate change thing to a war, our priorities are way out of whack.”