Als US-Präsident Obama nur wenige Tage nach dem vom Islamischen Staat verbrochenen Massaker von Paris danach gefragt wurde, ob nicht die Zeit gekommen sei, einen Strategiewechsel im Kampf gegen die Terrororganisation zu vollziehen, wurde er ungehalten: „If folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisors are better than the chairman of my joint chiefs of staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. And we can have that debate.“ Abe Greenwald erläutert in Commentary die Unaufrichtigkeit der Bemerkungen des Präsidenten:
„Obama doesn‘t need an introduction to those who would have done things differently; he knows them well. They include two of his secretaries of defense, his former under secretary of defense, his former secretary of state, his former head of the CIA, his former Army chief of staff, the last commanding general of forces in Iraq, his former ambassador to Syria, his former deputy national-security adviser, and, yes, even his former joint chiefs chairman – among others.“
Sie alle hatten zum einen oder anderen Zeitpunkt einen Kurswechsel in der Syrienpolitik gefordert. Anstatt auf sie zu hören, entledigte sich der Präsident der Mitarbeiter, die nicht seiner Meinung waren.