Obama Tells Baghdad That ISIS Is Their Fight

The White House on Thursday, in no uncertain terms, put the onus on the Iraqis to fight and defeat the Islamic State — even as a new report warned foreign fighters are flocking to the battlefield at a historic and dangerous pace.

“The United States is not going to be responsible for securing the security situation inside of Iraq,” Press Secretary Josh Earnest told Fox News.

Earnest defended the administration’s strategy, amid growing concerns about gains made by ISIS fighters in both Iraq and Syria. Earnest said the effort would take a “sustained commitment,” but stressed that the U.S. will continue to focus on training and equipping Iraqi forces, while backing them up on the battlefield with air power.

“Our strategy is to support the Iraqi security forces in doing what we will not do for them,” he said. “The United States is prepared to train them, to equip them, and to back them on the battlefield with coalition military air power as they take the fight to ISIL in their own country.”

In saying the U.S. will not be “responsible” for the security situation, the White House was putting clear limits on the lengths to which the U.S. will go to reverse ISIS’ gains, even as the Pentagon considers adjustments to the strategy.

Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell countered that “it is everybody’s fight.” Speaking with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Radio’s “Kilmeade and Friends,” Morell said the terror group poses a “significant threat to the stability of the entire Middle East.”

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