Paul Eaton Quoted in New York Times on ISIS Strategy

New Military Campaign Extends a Legacy of War

By Peter Baker

September 10, 2014 | The New York Times

Barry Pavel, a former Obama national security aide now at the Atlantic Council, said the president might be acting too tentatively.

“I’m not sure half-steps into Syria are ultimately going to achieve the president’s goals,” he said. “It’s a fine strategy for contain and disrupt. It’s not a strategy for defeat by any means. If you want to defeat ISIS, you have to go all-in to Syria, which the president isn’t prepared to do.”

But others warned against that sort of thinking, viewing it as Mr. Bush’s approach all over again. Such advocates expressed concern that Mr. Obama would be too precipitous in hunting down ISIS, when in fact it could be successfully contained by a regional coalition working together without the risks of a deeper military engagement.

“I do hope that he’s going to resist a rush to outcome” said Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army officer at the National Security Network, “and that the president will move in a deliberate, methodical fashion with a coalition willing to engage on the ground to resolve the problem over a period of months and years, as opposed to days and weeks.”

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