Speaking today at the White House summit on violent extremism, President Obama insisted that the military goal of destroying ISIS was only possible by imposing regime change in Syria.

Obama presented ISIS current size as the fault of Assad and former Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki not being sufficiently “inclusive,” and presented the replacement of Maliki with current Iraqi PM Hayder Abadi as a success in the war.

Obama has come under repeated fire for his war in Syria, initially being presented as about ousting the Assad government, dramatically strengthening their position vis-a-vis the various rebels they’ve been attacking.

That he doesn’t envision the Syrian war ending without regime change suggests the US war there will be long indeed, as they haven’t even begun the process of creating the new “moderate” rebel faction that they intend to eventually install in power, and the Pentagon has only identified about 1,200 potential trainees, making it unclear how they’ll ever install this faction as a government.