King Abdullah is the war time leader I wish we had. Obama was blowing off a meeting with him until there was such an outcry, that he spent less than 5 minutes with him in the airport as the King was leaving. Abdullah really understands what is happening, has no problem calling it a ‘civil war within Islam’.
Via Al Monitor:
Addressing members of Congress that evening, Obama emphasized, “As we focus on destroying [IS], over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands.” The American leader’s assertion that such dire warnings about IS are misguided directly contradict one of Abdullah’s main talking points when traveling overseas.
Over and over — whether at the United Nations General Assembly podium, during an interview with PBS’ Charlie Rose or even in Kosovo — the Jordanian monarch has declared that the battle against IS is “a third world war, and I believe we must respond with equal intensity.”
After IS kidnapped Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath Kasasbeh and burned him alive in a cage in February of last year, the Jordanian air force launched a series of strikes against IS targets in Syria and Iraq. Jordan claimed to have killed 7,000 fighters in the days following Kasasbeh’s execution.