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Ex-Intel Chief: Obama Must 'Get Real' on Fighting ISIS

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Even in the face of the murderous attacks in Paris, President Barack Obama still says his strategy against ISIS is working.
    
Now the president's former intelligence chief has a warning: the White House is underestimating the deadly ambitions of Islamic terrorists.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has seen the face of radical Islam up close.

"I will tell you strategically, they are very savvy, they are very cunning and they have the willingness to win," he said.

Gen. Flynn was President Barack Obama's top man at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Before that, he served as director of intelligence for the Joint Special Operations Command, a shadowy arm of the government that tracks and eliminates terrorists around the world. The same unit was responsible for the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

In an interview with CBN's Senior International Correspondent George Thomas, Gen. Flynn says America is at war and the sooner we realize that, the better we can be at beating ISIS and other Islamic terror groups. Watch below:

For the better half of a decade, Flynn has interrogated hundreds of Taliban, al Qaeda and other terrorists.

"The strategic leaders of these organizations, they are not 25-year-old kids," Flynn told CBN News.

"These are people who are, I would say, between the ages of 45 and 55 who are engineers, doctors, very intelligent. They should have better things to do, but they have this ingrained belief system, this ideology and they mean to not only establish the caliphate, but dominate the world," he warned.

Is what we saw in Paris the new norm as Islamic jihadists wage an insurgency against the West? Watch Flynn's answer below:

Flynn says Friday's Paris attacks serve as a reminder that the threat is unlikely to fade and the sooner we understand that, the better.

"We have to get real. This war that we are in, whether we like it or not, whether we accept the fact that we are in it or not, it is here in front of us!" he said.

In less than three weeks, ISIS has managed to blow up a Russian airliner, send suicide bombers into Beirut, Baghdad and Paris. What does that say about their ambitions outside of Syria and Iraq? Flynn answers that question below:

On Monday, president Obama called the terror attacks in Paris a "setback" in the fight against ISIS but is unwilling to send troops to Syria.

"It is not just my view, but the view of my closest military and civilian advisors that that would be a mistake," the president said while attending the G20 Summit in Turkey.

Click below for Flynn's explanation on why President Obama is reluctant to name the enemy as "radical Islam."   

 

Flynn sees the real mistake as a White House that continues to underestimate the enemy and their religious ambitions. The general says Obama cannot win this war if he can't even name the enemy.

"They call themselves Islamists; they see themselves as a component of Islam," Flynn told CBN News. "This is a political ideology based on a religion. Had we lost World War II to the Nazis we would be praying at the altar of Nazism today!"

Flynn says the decision to arm opposition groups like al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Nusra to topple Syria's President Bashar al-Assad went forward despite warnings that doing so would create a chaos in the region. But Flynn says it was a "willful decision" by the Obama administration to proceed. Watch more below:

 

Flynn believes it's time the president and the world wake up because what happened in Paris is the new norm and we will see more of it.

"This administration and the people that are around the president are poorly advising him on the kinds of things we are facing, this type of enemy we are facing," he said.

In August 2014, Flynn was forced out of the his job at the Defense Intelligence Agency for, among other things, his position that the Islamic terrorist threat was growing around the world, and not receding like the administration wanted the public to believe.

How can the United States and the world defeat ISIS, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups? Flynn answers that question below:

 

"And sadly when the president says something, everybody else that's in our government has to sort of toe the line; otherwise, you have to leave the government because if you can't toe the line, you're out, and you're looking at a guy who is out!" the general said.

A registered Democrat, Flynn worries the Paris attacks are only fueling ISIS' recruiting and funding operations.

In under three weeks, ISIS has managed to blow up a Russia airliner, send suicide bombers into Lebanon, Baghdad and now Paris.

"Their ambitions are high," he warned. "They believe they are winning. They are recruiting every time they do these operations – it shows they can actually win against the West, specifically the United States."

Gen. Flynn shares his thoughts on the recently signed nuclear deal with Iran:

Four years ago, the Islamic State did not exist; now it controls vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, and 35 terror groups around the world have pledged allegiance to its leader, Abu Bakri al-Baghdadi.

Flynn says we owe it to future generations to put a stop to this evil.

"We've got to quit kidding ourselves and the president of the United States needs to recognize that the absolutely failed policy that has been implemented by this administration to do anything about this is not achieving the mission," he said.

Flynn describes America's standing among our friends and allies in the Middle East:

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About The Author

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George
Thomas

Born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and of Indian descent, CBN News’ Senior International Correspondent and Co-Anchor, George Thomas, has been traveling the globe for more than 20 years, finding the stories of people, conflicts, and issues that must be told. He has reported from more than 100 countries and has had a front-row seat to numerous global events of our day. George’s stories of faith, struggle, and hope combine the expertise of a seasoned journalist with the inspiration of a deep calling to tell the stories of the people behind the news. “I’ve always liked discovering & exploring new