For the Record': How Stubborn U.S. Leaders Might Be Hurting the Fight Against the Islamic State

Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik posted a message of support for the Islamic State on Facebook prior to the San Bernardino, California, attack that left 14 people dead. It follows the same pattern as other IS-linked strikes on the West — including the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris and the May 4 shooting at a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Garland, Texas.

The former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, said the Obama administration ignored warnings about the rise of the Islamic State because they didn’t fit their narrative leading up to the 2012 election.

In a February 2015 interview, Flynn told TheBlaze TV’s For the Record that one of the biggest obstacles in the fight against IS was that U.S. leaders failed to adapt their plans when the facts on the ground didn’t match their preconceived ideas.

“I tell my boss, ‘This is what the enemy is, this is how I think the enemy is going to fight us,' so if he decides to continue to fight his plan and not the enemy, that’s a mistake,” Flynn said.

“I’ve seen that quite a bit, actually, where you disregard the threats that you’re facing and you stick to a plan and the plan has no connection to the threats that we’re facing."