Pentagon briefed do-nothing Pres. on ISIS at least 70 golf games, two Martha's Vineyard vacations ago

When the President threw on his nicest tan suit and announced that "we don't have a strategy yet" to deal with ISIS, the world cringed. Even many of his closest allies admitted it was a disastrous moment that would haunt Barack Obama for the rest of his presidency. If you haven't been paying attention, you might think it's all much ado about nothing. "Of course we don't have a strategy yet," you might say. "ISIS is such a recent problem and he's probably taking his time, trying to come up with the right solution."

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Unfortunately, we now know that Obama's admission of his strategy-free status is just the latest example of his administration's incompetence, fecklessness, and willful indecision. Obama was receiving Pentagon briefings about ISIS at least as far back as June of 2013. As Fox News reports:

A former Pentagon official confirms to Fox News that detailed and specific intelligence about the rise of ISIS was included in the PDB, or the President’s Daily Brief, for at least a year before the group took large swaths of territory beginning in June. The official, who asked not to be identified because the PDB is considered the most authoritative, classified intelligence community product providing the President with analysis of sensitive international events, said the data was strong, and “granular” in detail, adding a policy maker “…could not come away with any other impression: This is getting bad.”

"Well, sure," you might argue. "He'd heard about ISIS, but he didn't know how bad the situation was, and there was nothing he could do." Wrong again:

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After suggestions that the administration may have been blindsided by the rise of ISIS, and that poor intelligence was to blame, the former Pentagon official said some of the intelligence was so good it was described as “exquisite” when the President drew a red line on chemical weapons use in Syria in 2012. The source who is familiar with the deliberations said “(we) were ready to fire, on a moment’s notice, on a couple hundred targets,” but no order was given. In some cases, targets were tracked for a “long period of time” but then slipped away.

According to the Fox report, the President was first briefed on the specific, growing threat of ISIS in June of 2013. It was probably before that, but let’s give him the incredibly unwarranted benefit of the doubt. That means that....

• Before ISIS slaughtered thousands of Christians, Jews, and resistant Muslims, Obama had been briefed.
• Before over a million Iraqis were displaced, Obama had been briefed.
• Before ISIS took control of a landmass roughly the size of Indiana, Obama had been briefed.
• Before he called ISIS "the J.V. team," Obama had been briefed.
• Before James Foley was beheaded, Obama had been briefed.
• Before Stephen Sotloff was beheaded, Obama had been briefed.
• Before ISIS threatened to behead British captive David Haines, Obama had been briefed.

Imagine the cold-hearted hubris it takes to watch all of that happen - for a year - while you stubbornly refuse to settle on a course of action. Then, imagine standing in front of a podium and telling the families who've lost loved ones to these monsters that "we don't have a strategy yet." What kind of President could live with the knowledge that they knew of the threats, ignored the horror, and refused to come up with a strategy ...all while indulging in - at the very least - 70 golf games and two Martha's Vineyard vacations?

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