{"id":185027,"date":"2015-09-22T19:59:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T19:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=185027"},"modified":"2015-09-22T19:59:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T19:59:20","slug":"leader-us-war-effort-islamic-state-stepping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/leader-us-war-effort-islamic-state-stepping\/","title":{"rendered":"Leader of US war effort against Islamic State stepping down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The retired Marine general chosen by President Barack Obama to head military efforts against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS\/ISIL) is leaving the position, according to a new report.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>John R. Allen, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, will leave the job in November,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloombergview.com\/articles\/2015-09-22\/obama-s-islamic-state-war-czar-stepping-down\">according<\/a> to Bloomberg, which cited four anonymous Obama administration officials when reporting on the yet-public information.<\/p>\n<p>Allen is reportedly frustrated with a lack of resources to counter the jihadist group, according to US officials. Allen had unsuccessfully lobbied administration officials for increased tactical air control teams to more efficiently target IS on the ground in Iraq, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, administration officials have portrayed his decision as one made out of concern for his wife\u2019s poor health.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uUiedQ6WLjI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">After originally committing to six months, Allen stayed in the position for an additional six months at the request of US Secretary of State John Kerry. In the near term, his deputy, Ambassador Brett McGurk, is expected to assume his duties.<\/p>\n<p>Allen has defended the Obama administration\u2019s IS strategy, including on one occasion earlier this month when he told ABC News that airstrikes have been successful in some areas of Iraq and Syria, where IS controls large swaths of territory.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhere we were a year ago today, I wasn&#8217;t sure how it was going to unfold,&#8221;<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/week-transcript-dr-ben-carson-general-john-allen\/story?id=33710504\">said<\/a> Allen, who took the envoy post in September 2014. <em>&#8220;It was not clear to me even that Iraq would survive this. In the intervening months, we&#8217;ve seen remarkable progress in many respects.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\" readability=\"5.8709677419355\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\" readability=\"5.4193548387097\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hold on. John Allen steps down as ISIS war czar. David Petraeus gets royal treatment before the Senate today. You don&#8217;t think&#8230; ???<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoahShachtman\/status\/646359692709621760\">September 22, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Allen&#8217;s departure comes amid comments made last month by the incoming Marine Corps Commandant, Lieutenant General Robert Neller, that the US-led coalition&#8217;s war on IS has hit a <em>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/story\/defense\/policy-budget\/congress\/2015\/07\/23\/aspiring-usmc-chief-russia-threat--par--radical-extremism\/30574715\/\">stalemate<\/a>.&#8221;<\/em> Also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/313477-isis-us-campraign-probe\/\">in August<\/a>, the New York Times reported that characterizations of the campaign against IS may have been skewed, as intelligence assessments have been presented in an increasingly optimistic light, while real success in defeating IS jihadists is still out of sight a year after constantly bombing IS targets.<\/p>\n<p>While Allen, a retired four-star general and former commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, did secure permission for the US to use Turkey\u2019s Incirlik Air Base for Syrian bombing operations, other initiatives have not panned out. Despite US efforts, IS has maintained control of Mosul, Iraq\u2019s second-largest city, and expanded its reach into Ramadi, the largest city in Western Iraq\u2019s Al-Anbar Governorate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/313477-isis-us-campraign-probe\/\">Alleged stove-piping in US-led anti-ISIS campaign investigated<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In July, Allen said <em>&#8220;ISIS is losing&#8221;<\/em> the fight against the US-led coalition, even as other administration officials said Islamic State was the largest threat to the US homeland.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAs they get weaker at the core\u2026it also makes it more difficult to influence individuals and smaller groups, so both things can happen simultaneously,\u201d<\/em> Allen\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2015\/07\/25\/is-isis-winning-or-losing-team-obama-says-both.html\">told<\/a> The Daily Beast at the time.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe can see the individual threat potentially going up domestically, while we are squeezing ISIL at the strategic level in the region in Iraq and Syria, so those comments are not inconsistent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On September 10, 2014, Obama\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2014\/09\/10\/statement-president-isil-1\">announced<\/a> a <em>\u201ccomprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy\u201d<\/em> to <em>\u201cdegrade, and ultimately destroy\u201d<\/em> Islamic State. US drones and warplanes had already been targeting the group since early August of 2014, after IS killed two American journalists it had been holding hostage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong><em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/313066-isis-second-command-killed\/\">ISIS&#8217; no. 2 killed in US military air strike on August 18 \u2014 White House<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Obama outlined a four prong strategy against Islamic State in the announcement: While<strong><\/strong>conducting a <em>\u201csystematic campaign of airstrikes,\u201d<\/em> the US would <em>\u201cincrease our support to forces fighting these terrorists on the ground,\u201d<\/em> use counter-terrorism capabilities to prevent IS attacks elsewhere, and <em>\u201cprovide humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians\u201d<\/em> displaced by the group.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HHDBJWTvQhs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Initially nameless, the campaign was dubbed <em>\u201cOperation Inherent Resolve\u201d<\/em> in October 2014. Since then, the US and its allies have flown more than 53,278 sorties \u201cin support of operations\u201d in Iraq and Syria, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/314885-isis-usa-anniversary-campaign\/\">conducting more than<\/a> 6,700 airstrikes at an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/313664-american-taxpayers-millions-isis\/\">expense of<\/a> nearly $4 billion as of September 8, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/Special-Reports\/0814_Inherent-Resolve\">according<\/a> to official information provided by the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Via\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/316231-john-allen-war-isis\/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The retired Marine general chosen by President Barack Obama to head military efforts against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS\/ISIL) is leaving the position, according to a new report. John R. Allen, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, will leave the job in November,\u00a0according to Bloomberg, which cited four [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-185027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-war-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}