Poll: Majority of Americans "Concerned" Obama Has No Strategy to Deal With ISIS

Daniel Doherty | September 02, 2014 7:30 PM

As one television host recently noted, we’re all human beings and therefore we all make mistakes. That’s true enough. Even presidents, after all, aren’t exempt from the laws of nature. So when President Obama said a few days ago that his administration didn’t have “a strategy” to deal effectively with ISIS, most of his cheerleaders in the media, presumably, assumed it was a gaffe. But was it?

As of this writing, ISIS terrorists (some of whom are Westerners) have already beheaded one American journalist and reportedly decapitated another. At least one American has died fighting for the caliphate, and we don’t know if other American traitors, suspected of joining the group, will have their US passports rescinded, either.

Needless to say, these are all serious concerns. Hence why most Americans are troubled by what President Obama said last Thursday:

The president said last week at a press conference that the United States doesn’t have a strategy yet for dealing with the group which threatens to defeat democratic forces in Iraq and send the messy civil war in Syria further out of control. Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters are concerned that the United States does not have a strategy for dealing with this military group, with 47% who are Very Concerned. Twenty-five percent (25%) are not concerned by this lack of a strategy, but that includes only four percent (4%) who are Not At All Concerned.

The president has authorized selective U.S. airstrikes to halt ISIS advances but has ruled out sending troops back to Iraq. Just 30% think the United States should send troops to defeat ISIS, but that’s up from 12% last December. Opposition to sending troops back to Iraq has fallen dramatically from 71% in December to 58% a month ago. Now just 41% feel that way. A sizable 29% are undecided.