More than 90 percent of U.S. troops disapprove of President Obama, former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren.
Higbie denounced Obama’s remarks at CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, accusing the president of orchestrating a "photo-op" with U.S. troops.
"[Obama] has touted that he is behind the troops before, and he stands in front of these guys, gets a photo-op, everything like that, while saying he’s going to send 3,000 guys to combat Ebola," Higbie said. "But I’m not going to send any to combat an actual enemy that’s really threatening America."
Van Susteren asked how many troops support Obama’s handling of military issues.
"I’d say most of the troops," Higbie said. "Probably over 90 percent do not support the president."
Higbie said the Obama administration’s "foreign international defense" strategy to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS) would not be effective. Higbie was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and 2009 to train "the best of the best" of Iraqi troops. He speculated that these foreign troops could not defeat ISIL.
"[Foreign troops] don’t have the accountability, and the understanding, and the actual fortitude to fight an enemy like ISIS who’s dedicated," he said.
The White House announced this week that no U.S. ground troops would fight ISIL in Iraq. Instead, U.S. forces will provide assistance in the form of airstrikes, intelligence, and training of an international coalition of fighters.