"We've Been Wrong About Pretty Much Everything"

"But trust us. We know what we're doing."

Publicly announcing that US intelligence agencies “underestimated” the presence and activity of Islamic State militants in Syria, US President Barack Obama in an interview with CBS called the country a “ground zero” for international jihadists.

[...]

Clapper made similar comments to a Washington Post columnist earlier this month. “I didn't see the collapse of the Iraqi security force in the north coming,” Clapper was quoted as saying. “I didn't see that. It boils down to predicting the will to fight, which is an imponderable.”

[...]

At the same time, Obama admitted that the Iraqi army’s capabilities in dealing with militant groups were also overestimated.

  RT

Der Rumsfiend had the unknown, Clapper has "imponderable".

America - the greatest (and baddest) country on earth.

You misunderstand.  Here's his plan...

“We just have to push them back, and shrink their space, and go after their command and control, and their capacity, and their weapons, and their fueling, and cut off their financing, and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters,” he said.

Brilliant.  Nothing to it.