President Barack Obama on Wednesday outlined a U.S.-led coalition’s plans to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant through airstrikes and support for Syria’s opposition, stressing to a weary nation that he is not leading the nation into another war.
“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Obama said from the State Floor of the White House in a rare primetime speech.
“It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”
Rather, it is a “counter-terrorism campaign” that “will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground,” he said. It’s a “strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front
lines,” the same targeted strategy that the United States has been using in Yemen and Somalia.
The battle against ISIL will not be limited by political borders, Obama said. “I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”
Coming as the coalition takes shape and prepares to go on the offensive, the president’s primetime speech is an opportunity for him to explain his administration’s strategy to the American people and to ask for “buy in” from Congress, whether in the form of funding for the effort or with a bill authorizing its actions, which senior administration officials say they do not believe is necessary but would not object to seeing lawmakers pass.
The United States plans to lead a “broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat” with a clear objective, to “degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL through a
comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.”
The ramping up of U.S. military involvement in the Middle East is a major shift for Obama, who advocated for ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since before his campaign for president.
It comes a year after the president flirted with engagement in Syria against the regime of Bashar al- Assad for using chemical weapons, only to run into
congressional opposition.
A year later, Obama’s attention is again turned towards Syria, but at defeating ISIL, a group that branched off from al Qaeda in Iraq, and that, according to administration officials, poses a great
threat to Iraq, Syria and Americans in the region. Instead of asking Congress for the authority to act – as he did a year ago – Obama is more broadly looking for support from lawmakers.
“My administration has … secured bipartisan support for this approach here at home,” he said. “I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL. But I
believe we are strongest as a nation when the president and Congress work together. So I welcome congressional support for this effort in order to show
the world that Americans are united in confronting this danger.”
Support from Congress could be a bill authorizing the president to take military action against ISIL, a senior administration official said on a conference call with reporters to preview the speech, or could mean that lawmakers vote to provide funding for the action.
House Republicans delayed a vote this week on a continuing resolution to fund the government after Sept. 30 with the aim of potentially using the bill as a
means for funding U.S. efforts to train and arm the moderate Syrian opposition.
On Wednesday, Obama asked Congress for the “authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters.
In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost. Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria’s crisis once and for all.”
He also announced that 475 more U.S. military personnel will be sent to Iraq, not to engage in combat but to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces build up their capabilities. They join several hundred others who have been sent there since June. Obama aimed to prepare the American people for what administration officials have describe as a “sustained” effort that will take an indeterminate
amount of time.
“It will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL,” the president said. “And any time we take military action, there are risks involved – especially to the servicemen and women who carry
out these missions.”
The president also sought to put the fight against ISIL in context, noting that Thursday marks the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and
that next week marks six years since the 2008 financial crisis hit its lowest depths.
“Despite these shocks [and] through the pain we have felt and the grueling work required to bounce back, America is
better positioned today to seize the future than any other nation on Earth,” he said.
He also spoke of the leadership role that the United States has played in helping Ukraine defend itself from Russia’s incursion into Crimea, fighting the latest outbreak of Ebola in Africa, and protecting the Yazidis facing threats from ISIL in Iraq.
“When we helped prevent the massacre of civilians trapped on a distant mountain,” Obama said of the Yazidis, “here’s what one of them said, ‘We owe our American friends our lives. Our children will always remember that there was someone who felt our struggle and made a long journey to protect innocent
people.’”
“That is the difference we make in our world,” the president said. “Our own safety – our own security – depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to defend this nation, and uphold the values that we stand for – timeless ideals that will endure long after those who offer only hate and destruction have been vanquished from the Earth.”
Source: Politico
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