President Obama said on the heels of a meeting with his national security team the battle against ISIS could take generations to win – a somewhat surprising admission, given his previous public and bold references to the terror group as a "jayvee" team.
His latest, the Hill reported: "This will not be quick," Obama said, after meeting with military chiefs at the Pentagon about the fight against ISIS.
"This is a long-term campaign," he continued. "This larger battle for hearts and minds is going to be a generational struggle."
The president also said he has no immediate plans to send more U.S. troops into Iraq, and those already in-country for training and security purposes would not morph into combat fighters any time soon.
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"If we try to do everything ourselves all across the Middle East, all across North Africa, we'll be playing whack-a-mole," Obama said, the Hill reported. "There will be a whole lot of unintended consequences that ultimately make us less secure."
Republicans, in particular, have been critical of Obama's overseas' strategies against the terror group, whom he famously referred to as a "jayvee team" in a January 2014 interview with New Yorker. Then, Obama said: "The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant."
Obama's since tried to backtrack on those comments and claim he was referring to terror groups in general, not ISIS in particular. But the author of the article, David Remnick, confirmed to PolitiFact.com the discussion during Obama's remarks focused on the overtaking of Fallujah by a band of terrorists known as the Islamic State.
Fast-forward to today, and Republicans still aren't impressed with Obama's strategies to deal with ISIS.
"A speech isn't a strategy," said Cory Fritz, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, in the Hill. "At no point in his remarks did President Obama indicate he's doing anything to change course and actually build the broad, overarching plan that's needed to take on these savage terrorists and win."