Obama on ISIS: This isn’t a war of American vs. ISIL, this is the world against ISIL. President Obama’s weekly address sought to ensure concerned Americans.
In President Obama’s weekly address to the nation, he made an attempt to thank Congress for what little ground they could find bipartisan support and, discussed the plan to train and equip Syrian opposition forces to fight ISIS, or as Obama states “ISIL.”
This plan is part of the President’s counter-terrorism strategy that has split open a wide gap between the White House and the Pentagon. While the president says the plan is to degrade and destroy the terrorist army, it does not commit U.S. troops to fighting another ground war. However, Pentagon officials and experts agree that the war cannot be won without highly trained U.S. forces leading the effort to confront the group.
President Obama also repeated the claim that America is working with a broad coalition of nations, who will continue to train, equip, advise, and assist U.S. allies in the region. Yet, despite the same claim being made by Secretary of State John Kerry last week, PPD can only verify a coalition that consists of under 20 nation-states, none of which have been willing to commit ground troops to the fight, save for the Kurdish Peshmerga.
On the other hand, George W. Bush put together a near-40 state coalition — many with ground forces — before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Further, knowing that Al Qaeda spawned from such, Bush refused to train troops in Saudi Arabia, which is where the so-called Free Syrian Army — altogether 5,000 — are to be trained in Obama’s plan.
In the coming week, the President will speak at the United Nations General Assembly to discuss the fight in which the administration says all countries have a stake. Considering credibility on that particular podium is lacking for Mr. Obama, it is unclear whether pressure from the U.S. is something the president can still exert.
The last time the president spoke in that venue he repeated what each regional representative knew to be a false narrative multiple times, blaming a video for sparking a spontaneous demonstration that led to the Benghazi terror attack on Sept. 11, 2012. The preplanned, premeditated attack led to the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
