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Obama says he will outline Isis strategy in speech on Wednesday Obama says he will outline Isis strategy in speech on Wednesday
(about 3 hours later)
President Barack Obama will begin laying out a strategy this week to defeat Islamic State (Isis) militants in the Middle East, meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday and giving a speech on Wednesday. President Barack Obama will lay out a strategy this week to “go on offence” against Islamic State (Isis) by rallying an international coalition behind economic, political and military measures.
Obama disclosed his plans during an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. Obama said he will brief congressional leaders on Tuesday and address the nation on Wednesday to explain the administration’s plan to defeat the group which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria.
“I just want the American people to understand the nature of the threat and how we’re going to deal with it and to have confidence that we’ll be able to deal with it,” he said in the interview conducted on Saturday at the White House shortly after his return from a Nato summit in Wales where the Islamic State threat was a key topic of discussion. “I just want the American people to understand the nature of the threat and how we’re going to deal with it and to have confidence that we’ll be able to deal with it,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Obama restated his opposition to sending US ground troops to engage in direct combat with the militants, who have laid claim to large swaths of territory in Iraq, targeted religious and ethnic minority groups, and threatened US personnel and interests in the region. Obama said he did not expect to ask Congress for approval to act and restated his opposition to deploying US ground troops, saying the plan would be similar to counter-terrorism campaigns waged over the past six years.
At Obama’s direction, the US military has conducted more than 130 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq in the past month. In retaliation, the group recently beheaded two American journalists it had been holding hostage in Syria, where the organisation also operates. “The notion that the United States should be putting boots on the ground, I think would be a profound mistake. And I want to be very clear and very explicit about that.. This is not going to be an announcement about US ground troops. This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war.”
Lawmakers have pressed Obama to expand the air strikes into Syria. He has resisted so far, but said he has asked his military advisers for options for pursuing the group there. After months of intelligence gathering, and weeks of securing US personnel in diplomatic missions, “the next phase is now to start going on some offence”. the president said.
In the interview, Obama said the US would not go after the Islamic State group alone, but would operate as part of an international coalition and continue air strikes to support ground efforts that would be carried out by Iraqi and Kurdish troops. “Over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL,” he said, using an alternative name for the group which recently murdered two American journalists. “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.”
At the Nato summit, the US and nine allies agreed to take on the militants. The resolute tone contrasted with his much-criticised comment late last month that the US did not have a strategy. Last week he attended a Nato summit in Wales which debated how to respond to Isis.
Obama’s emerging strategy depends on the formation of a new government in Iraq, as well as cooperation and contributions from regional partners, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey. Obama said he expected the Iraqi government to be formed this week. American leadership had assembled a broad-based coalition, said Obama. “We are going to be part of an international coalition, carrying out air strikes in support of work on the ground by Iraqi troops, Kurdish troops. We are going to be helping to put together a plan for them, so that they can start retaking territory that ISIL had taken over.”
“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.” Iraq, which is forming a new government, and Muslim states with Sunni majorities, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, would have to “step up” to confront the scourge of Sunni extremism, he said. He expressed hope that moderate Sunni rebels in Syria would confront Islamic State in Syria.
Obama said his administration has seen no intelligence that suggests an immediate threat to the US from the Islamic State group. But he said the militants can become a serious threat to the homeland if they are allowed to control even more territory and amass more financial and other resources, including foreign fighters. Obama said Bashar al-Assad had forfeited legitimacy through brutally oppressing the Syrian people but that the campaign would focus on Islamic State, not Syria’s president.
Last month, while vacationing on the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard, Obama was criticised for heading to the golf course minutes after he appeared in public to angrily denounce the Islamic State militants for the videotaped killing of the American journalist James Foley. Obama referred to political, economic and military elements but did not elaborate, hinting that details would come later in the week when he briefed congressional leaders and addressed the nation.
Asked whether he wanted a do-over by new Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, Obama said that, while there will always be tough news somewhere, he “should’ve anticipated the optics” of immediately going to play golf after delivering that statement in which he said he had just got off the phone with Foley’s parents. “I’m confident that I have the authorization that I need to protect the American people. And I’m always going to do what’s necessary to protect the American people. But I do think it’s important for Congress to understand what the plan is, to have buy in, to debate it.”
But Obama said the more important question is whether he is getting the policies right and whether he is protecting the American people and, on that score, he said “I think I’ve done a very good job during the course of these last, close to six years.” Obama said his administration had received no intelligence suggesting an immediate threat to the US homeland from Islamic State but said the group could evolve if allowed to amass territory, money and other resources, including European fighters with US visas.
The interview, Obama’s first extended sit-down since launching airstrikes against in Iraq last month, was a coup for Chuck Todd’s first show as moderator of Meet the Press.
Obama also defended his announcement on Saturday to delay executive action on immigration reform, and sought to calm concern that west Africa’s ebola epidemic could reach the US. He was deploying US military assets to the region to provide security to health workers to make sure the virus did not spread and mutate, he said.