NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel blasted the US’ ISIS strategy as “all over the place,” “confused,” and “self-contradictory” on Friday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.
Engel started by agreeing with Richard Haass’ characterization that Iranians fighting ISIS is “putting out a fire with gasoline.”
He was asked if the US’ strategy against ISIS is working, he answered, “Well, I think to answer that, you have to answer the first question ‘What is the American strategy?’ And I think it’s really all over the place. It seems confused, it seems at times self-contradictory, it fights itself.”
Engel was then asked if ISIS was on the defensive, to which he said, “Sometimes, sometimes. I think if you’re an ISIS leader, you’d have to be nervous because there are airstrikes. There was just this snatch and grab operation that turned into a — they got — they snatched and grabbed the wife and they ended up killing — US special operation forces ended up killing a key ISIS money man. So, sure, I think you are nervous, because there is an air campaign and that is having a devastating effect, but it’s not changing the overall course of the war.”
(h/t Newsbusters)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett