President Barack Obama talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the NATO Summit at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, Sept. 4, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama was widely criticized for admitting he had no ISIS strategy while speaking in Estonia at the onset of the NATO summit last week. However, the president told Chuck Todd during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” which was conducted Saturday at the White House shortly after Obama returned from a NATO summit in Wales, will tell Americans in a speech Wednesday his plans to combat Islamic State militants in the Middle East.
“What I’m going to ask the American people to understand is that this is a serious threat,” Obama told NBC. “We have the capacity to deal with it, and here’s how we’ll deal with it. This will require some resources above what’s already in there.”
Before the president faces an American public increasing skeptical about his ability to lead in foreign affairs, he will outline his plan to Capitol Hill leaders Tuesday in the Oval Office. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, all will be in attendance.
Though Obama told Todd that he has not yet seen intelligence suggesting an immediate threat to the homeland, PPD reported that U.S. intel officials are extremely worried about an Al Qaeda vs ISIS competition ahead of the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. Further, nearly a dozen stolen jetliners have been in the hands of Islamic terrorists since last month, and now U.S. intelligence agencies are concerned they could be used to target New York and Washington D.C. on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
A recent survey found a whopping 73 percent of likely voters are worried the president really is clueless when it comes to a strategy for combating the terror army, including 47 percent who said they are “very concerned.” The planned speech will come one day before the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, but the president’s statements offer insight to what that plan may entail.
In the interview, Obama said the U.S. would not go after the Islamic State group alone, but would operate as part of an international coalition and continue airstrikes to support ground efforts that would be carried out by Iraqi and Kurdish troops.
“What I want people to understand … is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL,” he said, using an alternate name for the group. “We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We’re going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately we’re going to defeat them.”
The president caused confusing during the NATO summit when he first said the U.S. plan was to destroy ISIS, then degrade their capabilities, and finally that we would contain the terror group until they were a manageable problem. From his latest comments in the interview, it would appear the plan will consist of measures to degrade the terror group’s capabilities.
Obama restated his opposition to sending U.S. ground troops to engage in direct combat with the militants, though support for ground troops has steadily increased since the beheading of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Nearly half of American voters now support sending U.S. combat troops to fight ISIS as part of an international coalition, however, are less enthusiastic about U.S. troops fighting alone.
