White House: No friction between Obama, Pentagon over ISIS

The White House on Friday strongly disputed suggestions of friction between President Obama and the Pentagon over the strategy for confronting fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

White House press secretary Josh Earnest unloaded on a front-page headline in The Washington Post pointing to skepticism in the military of Obama’s plan, calling its conclusions “wrong.”

{mosads}“All they do is they misinterpret Chairman Dempsey’s testimony, and the rest of the time, they essentially quote either people who are frequent critics or people who supported the previous Iraq conflict,” Earnest said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“So the more accurate headline would be, ‘Supporters of the Bush war in Iraq criticize President Obama’s strategy.’ And that’s been true since 2002,” Earnest said.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey made headlines Wednesday, when he told a congressional panel that, if conditions changed in Iraq, he could advise the president to send in U.S. ground troops. Obama has repeatedly ruled out ground troops in the ISIS fight.

Earnest insisted that Obama “listens very carefully to the advice he gets from his military commanders” and “appreciates the very solid advice he receives.”

He also hailed bipartisan votes in the House and Senate this week approving Obama’s request for authority to arm and train Syrian rebel groups to fight ISIS.

“I actually think the United States Congress, over the course of the last 36 hours or so, has sent a very clear signal to our country, to our allies around the globe and our enemies that Democrats and Republicans, the United States Congress and the president are all in the same place,” Earnest said.

The reliance on Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syrian rebel groups in that country to fight ISIS has raised concerns on Capitol Hill and suggestions from some former military leaders that it will not be enough to stop ISIS.

The Post story quoted a retired Marine general who worked under Obama until last year as saying U.S. airstrikes might not be enough and that U.S. ground troops could be needed.

In 2009, the White House clashed with the Pentagon over whether to surge troops into Afghanistan. Top administration officials reacted angrily when senior military officials began demanding a significant troop deployment, and, ultimately, committed fewer soldiers than military leaders had requested.