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Obama to Lay Out ISIS Strategy to Nation
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
September 7, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Speaking from the Oval Office in a nationwide address
one day before Sept. 11, 52-year-old President Barack Obama plans to lay out an
ambitious plan to neutralize the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that has seized
30% of Iraq and Syria’s sovereign land.
After watching beadings of two American journalists, 40-year-old James
Foley Aug. 19 and 31-year-old Stephen Sotloff Sept. 2, Obama had a change of
heart about how to proceed in Iraq and Syria.
For the past five-and-a-half years Barack was content to let surrogates
in Iraq and Syria do the heavy lifting, hoping to avoid after ending the
unpopular Iraq War Dec. 15, 2011 another Mideast conflict. Unlike Osama bin Laden that never
seized one inch of sovereign land, ISIS’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdad engaged in the
biggest blitzkrieg since WW II, when Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich gobbled up
Eastern and Western Europe.
Obama authorized targeted bombings of ISIS Aug. 7 of ISIS to stop the
genocide of Iraq’s ancient Yazidi population, fleeing Mount Sinjar. Bombing key positions near the Mosul
Dam and arming the Kurds Peshmerga forces, Obama hoped to avoid direct U.S.
involvement that’s now become inevitable.
Watching ISIS massacre Christian, Shiite and Sunni groups in Iraq and
Syria forced Obama’s hand. His
prior foreign policy relieved the U.S. of playing world policeman, imposing a
more cautious approach in using the Pentagon to settle foreign conflicts. “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,” Obama said at the White House after returning from a NATO summit in
Newport, Wales. Obama’s
cautious approach has been criticized on both sides of the aisle.
After Osama bin Laden leveled the World Trade Center and Pentagon Sept.
11, 2001, former President George W. Bush went on the offensive, taking, as he
put it, the battle to the enemy. No
longer willing to wait until the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the Bush
Doctrine changed U.S. terrorism strategy from a law enforcement issue to one for
the military. Regardless of the
eventual threat ISIS poses to the U.S. homeland, Obama wants to keep American
boots off the ground in Iraq and Syria.
Without mentioning it, the Pentagon already has Special Forces on the
ground in both countries. Telling
the public Wednesday that he intends to keep U.S. forces in an advisory role
doesn’t address the hard reality on the ground, requiring U.S. forces. For the first time since signing the
Affordable Care Act into law March 23, 2010, Obama finally has a consensus on
Capitol Hill.
When Obama decided after taking his oath of office Jan. 20, 2009 to hand
his domestic policy over to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), he burnt his bridges in Congress. Obama’s now got solid backing from
the GOP on going to war against ISIS.
If there’s any remaining disagreement, it’s over Obama’s timid approach. After watching beheadings of two
U.S. journalists and ISIS promising attack in the U.S. homeland, the GOP wants
to hit ISIS hard. Obama has asked
for a coalition-of-the-willing to go after ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Capitol Hill Republicans want Obama
to use the full weight of the U.S. military to degrade ISIS. “Clearly he’s put together a coalition of the willing—we have seen that before—to tackle
this problem. That’s good,” said
Rep. Mike Rodgers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Leaders of the Democratic Party on Capitol Hill have joined Republicans
in calling for urgent military action against ISIS. Putting a coalition-of-the-willing
together has symbolic value but ultimately isn’t that important to Congressional
Republicans and Democrats. “Time is
a wasting, because we have now said that we’re going to go on the offensive. And it’s time for America to project
power and stregth,” Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) told CNN’s John King on
“State of the Union.” Squandering
much of his legacy over the last five-and-a-half years, Obama now has a real
chance to redeem himself—and his presidency.
Whether or not Barack gets Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey to partner in battling ISIS,
the fact that he’s acted decisively in defense of U.S. national security should
win back lost credibility. ISIS has
fallen in Obama’s lap, whether he likes it or not.
Speaking to the nation and Congress Wednesday, Obama can no longer dither
over the expected strong U.S. military response against ISIS. ISIS’s 42-year-old maniacal leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi begs the civilized world to stand up to the biggest menace
since Adolf Hiller. Before the U.S.
opens fire with both barrels, Obama must confer with Democrats and Republicans
in Congress on coherent Syrian policy.
Both parties must accept that battling ISIS could leave Bashar al-Assad
in power, something previously opposed by both parties. U.S. officials haven’t
yet admitted that Russian President Vladimir Putin was right about leaving
al-Assad in power to avoid the inevitable power vacuum and ensuing chaos. Going after al-Baghdadi with the
U.S. military isn’t about helping al-Assad:
It’s about stopping maniacal tyrant from wreaking more mayhem on the
civilized world.
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