Steven Bucci: Obama Ignores 'Middle Ground' to Turn ISIS Tide

The Obama administration does not seem serious about defeating the Islamic State (ISIS), and some boots on the ground are needed to win the fight, former U.S. Army Special Forces officer Steven Bucci says.

"Clearly, the administration is not being serious about defeating ISIS," Bucci, who is director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, writes in an opinion piece for The Daily Signal.

"There is a widespread and growing criticism that the 'No Boots on the Ground Plus Light Airstrikes' approach has failed to drive ISIS back from its gains in Iraq and has enabled the radical Islamist terror group to achieve record recruiting," he writes.

According to Bucci, who also worked at the Pentagon, the Obama administration needs "to change its failing strategy for Iraq."

He contends that "there is a responsible middle ground between the fairly 'thin' investment made by Obama and a full reinvasion of Iraq."

Bucci summarizes an outline put together by The Heritage Foundation for how the Obama administration ought to proceed in its fight against ISIS based on that middle ground, which Bucci says is "modeled on the successful operations in Afghanistan from late 2001 through early 2002."

The Heritage strategy centers around "embedding American and allied Special Operations forces with local ground units (Iraqi, Kurdish, and eventually Syrian), supported by heavy airpower controlled by the Special Operations embeds."

Bucci also argues that "the U.S. needs to ease restrictions on use of forces to increase effectiveness of air power and include possible combat operations, especially for special operations forces."

"The administration should stop removing further use of American forces from the table of options. This self-imposed limitation is a huge hindrance that almost guarantees failure," he writes.

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