WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is acknowledging that U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated the threat from Islamic State militants and overestimated the ability and will of Iraq’s army to fight.
In an interview airing today on “60 Minutes” on CBS, Obama says militants who had gone “underground” after being squashed in Iraq were able to reconstitute themselves amid the chaos of the Syrian civil war.
Obama says the situation calls for both military and political solutions. He says military force is necessary to shrink their capacity, cut off financing and eliminate the flow of foreign fighters. But he says political solutions are also needed that accommodate both Sunnis and Shiites. He says conflicts between the two sects are the biggest cause of conflict throughout the world.
CBS released excerpts of the interview ahead of the broadcast.
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