If elected president, Trump says he will give his top generals a "simple" instruction: Within 30 days, come up with a plan for "soundly and quickly defeating" the Islamic State group.But wait -- I thought Trump was better informed on ISIS than the generals. That's what he told us last November:
Trump made the comments at a Tuesday night rally in Greenville, North Carolina.
"I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me... I would bomb the shit out of them."And I thought he already had a plan for defeating ISIS. That's what he said in May of last year:
Donald Trump told Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren that he has a “foolproof way” of defeating ISIS, but he won’t share it with the media. He will, however, put his plan into action if he’s elected President of the United States.So why does he need anyone else's plan when his is perfect?
“If I run, and if I win, I don’t want the enemy to know what I’m doing,” Trump said of the Islamic extremist terrorist group that has been steadily causing trouble in the Middle East. “Unfortunately, I’ll probably have to tell at some point, but there is a method of defeating them quickly and effectively and having total victory.”
“All I can tell you it is a foolproof way of winning, and I’m not talking about what some people would say, but it is a foolproof way of winning the war with ISIS,” he said. “And it will be absolutely, 100 percent --they’ll at minimum come to the table but actually they’ll be defeated very quickly.”
At least one general is insulted by Trump's latest statement:
A retired army general is slamming Donald Trump's remarks that as President he will ask the US military to come up with a plan within one month to defeat ISIS.That's 37 years longer than Trump served in the military, of course. But he knows more than they do, and he's going to tell them how to do their jobs.
"I had to ask myself, what the hell does he think we've been trying to do for the last 14 years in terms of al Qaeda?" Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling told Anderson Cooper on AC360 on Tuesday....
The former commanding general decried Trump, calling his orders "simplistic" and insulting to individuals working to defeat ISIS.
"It shows a complete lack of understanding of the threat and the ways to fight it," Hertling said. "It's a sophomoric approach to elements of national security policy because if he's just calling in the military, he's missing the point that there are several other elements of national security that will help defeat ISIS."
... Hertling served in the Army for 37 years.
Or maybe not. He can't seem to decide.