Intel Experts: Obama's 'Benign Neglect' of Terror Groups Has 'Disastrous' Consequences

(Newsmax) With al-Qaida and the Islamic State group enjoying safe havens across parts of Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and with terror attacks on the rise worldwide, doubts are growing about the effectiveness and sustainability of the Obama administration's "light footprint" strategy against global extremist movements.

A strategy predicated on training local forces and bombing terrorists from the air is actually making the situation worse, some leading intelligence analysts. Many are arguing for deeper U.S. involvement, if not with regular ground troops, then at least with elite advisers and commandos taking more risks in more places.

"What they are doing now is making it more likely that there will be a bigger, more disastrous catastrophe for the United States," said David Sedney, who resigned in 2013 as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Drone strikes are not creating a safer, more stable world," Sedney said, and neither is the limited bombing campaign the Pentagon is running against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Both are creating new enemies, he added, without a plan to defeat them.

This week, the administration said it was asking law enforcement to be on high alert over the July 4 weekend following coordinated attacks last week by ISIS in the Middle East and Africa. A number of former administration officials said that warning should be heeded by the administration.

But it is the global counter terror efforts that have many others sounding an alarm. They include former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Michael Flynn, who accuses the administration for which he once worked of "policy confusion." Former Army deputy chief Lt. Gen. Richard Zahner says the Obama administration's policy of "benign neglect" toward strife-torn Yemen and Syria has ensured the existence of terrorist safe havens there for both al-Qaida and Islamic State militants.

Even Michele Flournoy, the former undersecretary of defense for policy who was the president's first choice to replace Chuck Hagel as defense secretary, wrote last month that the U.S. effort against the Islamic State is "faltering," and urged a more robust approach.

"U.S. counterterrorism policy has caused some intense backlash and has had a lot of unintended consequences," said Rosa Brooks, a former Obama administration Pentagon official.

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