"The president said, for a long time we've known about the serious threat from ISIL, but everyone -- us, the Iraqis, even ISIL itself probably -- was surprised by how quickly earlier this summer they were really able to take territory in Iraq," Harf said.
You see, even the Islamic State was shocked by their own capabilities. Thiers was a wondrous journey of self-actualization in the form of a campaign of crucifixions and beheadings.
"They moved more quickly than anyone could have imagined," she added, forgetting apparently that many did imagine ISIS's blitz across Iraq in specific detail.
�"You know, assessing the will of a force to fight -- the capability is one thing you can assess -- but the will is a tough thing to assess," she added. Because everyone really knew that ISIS had the capability to mount a smashing offensive across the Middle East, but no one knew that they had the stoutness of character to achieve it!
What an embarrassing display.
How much damage could the president have avoided doing to his administration if he had just said, "I underestimated ISIS and I overestimated the Iraqis." His critics would have had a field day with it for 48 hours, but the media would have quickly moved on to another story. It would have disappeared in short order. Now, the intelligence community is out for blood, and the president has sparked a bureaucratic war inside the Beltway. Much like his response to ISIS, Obama's underestimation of the intelligence community will likely prove to be shortsighted.
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