ELMAU, Germany—Acknowledging military setbacks, President Barack Obama said Monday the United States still lacks a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi forces to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He urged Iraq’s government to allow more of the nation’s Sunnis to join the campaign against the violent extremists.
Nearly one year after American troops started returning to Iraq to assist local forces, Obama said ISIS remains “nimble, aggressive, and opportunistic.” He touted “significant progress” in areas where the United States has trained Iraqis to fight but said forces without U.S. assistance are often ill-equipped and suffer from poor morale.
ISIS terrorists captured the key Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi last month, prompting Defense Secretary Ash Carter to lament that Iraqi troops lacked “the will to fight.” That was a strikingly negative assessment of a military that has been the beneficiary of billions in U.S. assistance dating back to the war started during the administration of U.S. President George. W. Bush in 2003.
