The Obama administration has responded to the recent gains by the Islamic State in Iraq with several remedial measures, including accelerating a shipment of antitank weapons to Iraqi forces and pledging to push harder for the delivery of arms to Sunni tribes. But some senior administrative officials have adopted a defensive crouch, blaming the Iraqis for failing to defend the city of Ramadi and insisting that there is no alternative to current U.S. strategy.

The response has angered senior Iraqi officials, who point out that Iraqi soldiers and tribal fighters defended Ramadi for 18 months. It may have accentuated what has been a renewed turn by the government of Haider al-Abadi toward Iran, which sponsors the Shiite militias that have been dispatched to retake Ramadi. Above all, the blame-shifting has substituted for an honest and searching re-examination by Obama of his plan for defeating the Islamic State.

The Obama administration has been unable to induce the Abadi government to deliver desperately needed arms to the Sunni tribes and Kurdish forces. Yet it simultaneously refuses to deliver materiel directly to those fighters, on the grounds this might undermine the Abadi government. Meanwhile, U.S. officials watch as Iran continues to provide massive direct support to Shiite militias, including forces the United States has designated as terrorist organizations.

Rather than blame Iraqi troops, Obama should bolster them with more U.S. advisers, including forward air controllers, and more air support. He should insist that Abadi open a weapons pipeline to Sunni and Kurdish units. Perhaps most important, Obama should make his priority eliminating the Islamic State — as opposed to limiting U.S. engagement in Iraq.

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE WASHINGTON POST