On Sunday’s broadcast of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice said the death Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS was not “mission accomplished.”
Rice was apparently referencing the controversial mission accomplished speech by President George W. Bush in 2003 in which he announce an end to major combat in Iraq.
Rice said, “Obviously it’s a major milestone and it’s one we all should be welcoming quite plainly, but it doesn’t mean that the fight against ISIS is over. And it doesn’t mean that we can declare mission accomplished and just walk away. What we’ve seen time and time again in this part of the world is that when the pressure is relieved on terrorist organizations, whether al-Qaeda or ISIS, they are able to reconstitute. So we need to be vigilant. We need to maintain a minimal presence in order to ensure that the pressure stays on ISIS and they don’t come back roaring.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN