Month: October 2014

President Mansoor vows to do more to fight Islamic State

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By: Matt Wilkes

October 22, 2014

President Pete Mansoor acknowledged that he underestimated the strength of the Islamic State group and more will be done to combat them moving forward.

The president said he has advised the National Security Council and the Pentagon to come up with alternate plans to destroy ISIS.

“Although our air campaign has, to date, helped to blunt ISIL offensives in northern Syria and Iraq, I realize that more must be done to roll back the group and continue the hard work of destroying it,” said Mansoor.

Mansoor delivered this message at a press conference held at the Journalism Building at the Ohio State University on Tuesday.

Despite the president’s acknowledgement that a better plan needs to be enacted, he has no plans to send ground troops to Iraq to fight the Islamic State.

“First, let me just say that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has come out publicly and stated that he does not want US ground combat forces in Iraq,” said Mansoor. “Even if I felt that they were necessary to degrade and ultimately to destroy ISIL, they wouldn’t be welcome on the ground.”

“Our policy is to help train and advise the Iraqi and Kurdish forces and that they will provide the boots on the ground needed to help degrade, roll back ISIL in Iraq,” Mansoor continued. “And ultimately we will be working with free Syrian forces to destroy ISIL in Syria.”

The president also discussed his plan to prevent American citizens from supporting the Islamic State, saying that the United States will not allow its own citizens to join such a brutal terrorist group.