Gates: Obama needs to speed up, intensify ISIS fight

Robert Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday morning that President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria needs “to be sped up an intensified.”

“I think that while ISIS is a long-term problem for us, we have near-term issues associated with it,” Gates, a former Defense secretary and CIA chief, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

{mosads}”All you have to do is look at the downing of the Russian airliner and the attack in Paris and the attacks in Beirut and so on.“

Gates said, however, that putting tens of thousands of U.S. troops on the ground is not a “near-term solution.”

“It would take months and months, even if you decided you wanted to do it, to put the logistics in place, get the troops trained, and so on. And then I’m not sure they don’t aggravate the problem.”

Gates called for more special forces as well as forward air controllers and spotters. He also said advisors are needed to work with tribal groups and Iraqi security forces.

Gates added that the relationship between Russia and Turkey, strained last week by the downing of a Russian warplane, will complicate coordination in Syria.

“I think that the biggest concern is, really, the overall relationship between Russia and Turkey, and what this says about the prospects for a broader coalition in the region. I think the Russians were embarrassed, frankly, by their plane getting shot down. It’s been a long time since a Russian fire combat aircraft was shot down by hostile fire. And especially by a different country.”

Gates did not answer directly when asked if Turkey is a “good American ally” in the fight against ISIS.

“I think that Turkey has its own interests, as do all of the players in the region. And one of their biggest concerns, obviously, is Kurdish terrorism and the Kurdish movement more broadly. I think that they are starting do things that are helpful. But the reality is [Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan] has a much harder line in terms of [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad having to go immediately than the administration does. So the Turks are very much in the same place as the Saudis and others. But you can’t really go after ISIS until you get rid of Assad.”