MSNBC’s Kay: Obama Admin Taking ‘Machiavellian Approach’ to Islamic State Fight Airstrikes Aren’t Enough

Mikey Kay, a foreign affairs reporter and analyst for MSNBC stated that the Obama administration has been “looking at a more sort of Machiavellian approach, avoiding at all costs putting boots on the ground in mass numbers” when it comes to fighting ISIS on Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live.”

Kay said, “I think what the Obama administration has been doing is they’ve been looking at a more sort of Machiavellian approach, avoiding at all costs putting boots on the ground in mass numbers. So they’ve been going through the sf channels, 450 advisers went to Iraq last summer. … And I think we really do have to take a holistic approach to this. I think what the administration has come to the conclusion of, despite all of the Machiavellian and geopolitical trade that’s been going on is that you have to align yourself with ground forces directly. So, for example, the alliances with the Peshmerga in northern Iraq, with the Syrian Kurds in the north of Syria, I think they have been key with Kobani, with looking at Ramadi, and so on and so forth. I think those relationships will have to build. I think the key question, bearing in mind the US has been conducting airstrikes now for over 450 days at a cost of 5.2 million, 11 million a day, I think the key question is, is that — is what we’re doing in Iraq and Syria, is that degrading the ability of the Islamic State to prosecute a homeland attack attack like Paris? And if you look at what’s happened in this year, in terms of Hebdo, Paris attacks, Tunisia massacre, and let’s not forget, thousands have been killed through Daesh bombs in Baghdad. When we look at all of that, we’ve got to question, are airstrikes enough? I don’t think they are. I think there needs to be a holistic approach. We need to align more with ground forces, and then we kind of need to sort of look at the more holistic things like financing and imams within the mosques that we see in Europe and around the world.”

(h/t Daily Caller)

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