Washington Free Beacon managing editor Aaron MacLean criticized President Obama's strategy to counter the Islamic State terrorist group Wednesday on Fox Business, arguing Obama was committed to a vision of soft power "regardless of the consequences."
MacLean said Obama had responded to the Paris terrorist attacks committed by IS last week by adding just a "smidge" of energy to a strategy that anyone outside his own White House could see was failing.
"He seems flat and disdainful and awfully thin-skinned when he's talking about terrorism itself," MacLean said.
He pointed out that the subsequent moves to share more intelligence with France and to strike the Syrian oil sector raised the question of why the U.S. wasn't implementing such strategies already, given the clear threat IS has posed for more than a year. MacLean said what was more disturbing was the Obama administration's seeming acceptance of the constant possibility of an IS attack as a new normal.
"They are committed to a vision of American power where America is no longer the guarantor of security in the Middle East, where America pulls back and is one nation among many, and they're going to see that vision through, regardless of the consequences," MacLean said.
MacLean called the current American debate over Syrian refugees a "cynical ploy" distracting from Obama's failed policies in the Middle East. Obama has blasted Republican officials calling for a pause in the resettling Syrian refugees, saying that such sentiments were inconsistent with American values.
"We're now having a debate over a token number, 10,000 or so, Syrian refugees that the president wants to resettle here, as he flies around the world belittling and mocking half the country," MacLean said.