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Former Clinton Defense Secretary: Obama Foreign Policy 'Not Serious,' Losing 'Credibility'

February 18, 2015

The president will host a three-day counter-extremism summit at the White House with leaders from more than 60 countries. This comes in the wake of the growth of the Islamic State in the Middle East. There have also been questions in regard to how President Obama is handling the situation.

The United States and it the coalition in the Middle East have conducted multiple airstrikes on IS, but has yet to deter the growth of the radical Islamic group. William Cohen,  defense secretary under Bill Clinton, said Obama’s foreign policy is "not serious" and that the United States has lost "credibility."

"When you draw a red line, you have to enforce that red line or else you lose credibility. So we lost credibility with those in the region. We lost credibility with UAE, with the Saudis, with the Israelis," Cohen said.

Cohen also said the United States and its allies are in an information war with IS. IS has put out multiple pieces of propaganda aimed to recruit young people to the radical Islamic group. Cohen suggested that the US needs to "up its game" in controlling the spread of the violence.