Live Blog: President Obama’s Speech on Dealing with Islamic State Militants
Posted: September 10, 2014 Filed under: Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Iraq, just because, Syria, U.S. Politics | Tags: Islamic State, live blog 36 Comments
In this image made through a window of the Oval Office, President Obama speaks on the phone to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Wednesday (NPR)
President Obama will give a prime-time speech at 9:00 tonight in which he will lay out a strategy to deal with the Islamic State Militants in Iraq and Syria. Let’s watch the speech together and discuss on what the President says in real time. I’ve gathered some links to articles that report on and react to the leaked content of the speech.
According to The Washington Post, Obama will announce a ‘broad coalition’ to fight the Islamic State terror group.
The United States will lead a “broad coalition” to defeat the Islamic State through air strikes and support for military partners on the ground, President Obama will announce Wednesday night….Obama will tell the country that the offensive against the militant group will not involve combat troops, but rather a “steady, relentless effort” that involves air power and backing for partner forces, according to early excerpts provided by the White House.
“So tonight, with a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” Obama will say, using an acronym for the Islamic State terrorist group.
Obama will make clear to a war-weary public that the offensive will not resemble the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but rather other, more covert, missions against terrorists.
“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” Obama will tell the nation.
“This counter-terrorism campaign 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. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”
Frankly, I’m very worried about this. I really don’t see how this is going to end well. I hope I’m wrong.
Richard Engel writes at NBC News, What Happens After the U.S. Bombs ISIS?
On one level, bombing ISIS is easy. The U.S. knows where the group operates. There’s no need for a ten-year hunt like the one for Osama bin Laden. The terror group has two capital cities, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. Al-Qaeda never had such an obvious home address.
Finding a justification to attack ISIS is also simple. It has threatened to carry out another 9/11, beheaded two American journalists, slaughtered thousands of Iraqis and Syrians and is a danger to U.S. allies in the region. Many in the U.S. military believe ISIS needs to be immediately, and repeatedly, smashed by American drones and warplanes.
But what then happens to the Middle East – this seething cauldron of competing interests, religious passions, ethnic tensions, long memories and oil? The key question now, as before the Iraq invasion, is what happens after the U.S. starts bombing.
ISIS controls a territory roughly the size of Maryland where 8 million people live. If it’s attacked and toppled, who will fill the void? In Iraq, it will be the Kurdish fighters or the Iraqi army. The two don’t trust each other and have different objectives for the territory they control. The Kurds are laying the foundation for a future independent state. The Iraqi army is increasingly an Iranian-guided, Shiite force.
The U.S. spent billions of dollars to build a secular, professional national Iraqi army but failed because, despite all the U.S.-supplied guns, tanks and planes, the Iraqi military fell apart when challenged by a band of terrorists. President Obama wants to reconstitute it now as part of his ISIS strategy. Why would it work this time when it didn’t before, even as U.S. troops were standing next to Iraqi soldiers in Baghdad, shoulder to shoulder?
Good questions. Read more at the link.
From the LA Times, Obama to call for ‘steady, relentless’ effort against Islamic State.
Nearly six years after he was elected on the promise to end America’s decade of wars, Obama planned to detail a military campaign that is broader and more complex than any he has launched during his tenure.
Obama is expected to expand U.S. airstrikes against the militants in Iraq to include targets throughout the country as well as across the rapidly disintegrating border with Syria, where the group harbors its weapons, camps and fighters.
White House officials say Obama also plans to further train and arm Iraqi and Kurdish troops as well as opposition forces battling the Islamic State in Syria. He’ll tout beefed-up partnerships with governments in the Middle East and Western allies, who have been asked to assist in the training, gather intelligence and counter the Islamic State’s appeal in the broader Muslim world.
In his televised remarks, Obama was to describe the effort as a “broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat.”
“Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” according to prepared remarks released by the White House, referring to the Islamic State by a commonly used abbreviation.
Those article spell out the gist of what the President will say. Here are a few more links to peruse if you want more.
Reuters, Bill to fund U.S. government ensnared in debate about Islamic State.
LA Times, Cheney urges Obama to launch ‘immediate’ assault on Islamic State (Sigh . . . why won’t he go away?)
Foreign Policy, There are already troops in Iraq. Problem is, they’re Iranian.
The New York Times, What Obama Faces in a Campaign Against ISIS.
Please us know what you think of the speech in the comment thread. Watch the live stream at CNN here and at the LA Times with live updating here.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
This is a was without end. You can’t bomb an ideology. This is fuel on the fire. Doesn’t he realize why they used social media to spread the murder of the journalists? This is misguided and disastrous.
Thanks for doing this! I’m sitting in Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office!
I’m so stressed out! Between the new computer and trying to figure out my electrical problem, I’m feel like I’m going nuts.
Yes. Like moving into a new home
New laptop? Nice…
Wow, how is she doing?
It’s basically a statistical tie. That’s why I’ve come out of my shell to volunteer. A republican senate would be a disaster for the country.
Thanks for your work, Dak!
One of the most gratifying things I have done is to participate in local elections. You can give a little time or a lot of time, it’s your call but it makes a huge difference. Elections, especially local elections are won because of money first, but mainly it’s boots on the ground and butts in the seats making phone calls, doing data entry, sharing ideas, whatever. It’s not only gratifying to feel a part of the process, you get some amazing opportunities to meet people you never thought you’d meet. Last year my daughter and I went to an event where Michelle Obama was speaking. Not only did I get to shake her hand, but my daughter actually chatted with her and got a hug! And it all came to pass because we spent a few hours helping out. I would recommend it to everyone who can spare an hour or two a week. That’s all it takes.
Obama: The U.S. will send an additional 475 service members to Iraq
Obama’s full prepared remarks on #ISIL: http://t.co/MoTN687j7X
“If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven,” Obama says. http://t.co/KsIQLhawzp
It will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL. But it will be different: no American troops, just air power and “supporting partners on the ground.”
Tomorrow is the anniversary of 9/11, and it has been 6 years since the economy crashed.
Now he’s listing accomplishments and says the economy has improved.
It really has been shit since 2001…
President Obama is prepared to authorize airstrikes on ISIS in Syria, an administration official says. http://t.co/HrmOgKK4zo
Map: Areas of Iraq and Syria under ISIS control http://t.co/bILTzca6vn http://t.co/Mwr12eYLkQ
He’s not giving many specifics, just a bunch of PR-type statements.
And that’s it. It didn’t even last half an hour.
You know the GOP will debate, and get back to Obama with their strategy: We’ll approve of resouces, if you will repeal Obamacare. Now let’s shut down the government.
lolsob
I would just like to add! STFU!!! John McCain!!!!
Trending: Woman finds sister’s convicted killer on Facebook http://bit.ly/WLcXzG
Thank you for this posting. I completely forgot about the speech. I know, how could I have forgotten? Maybe on some level I’m not ready to deal with this. I’m too cynical about wars and targets and all that crap. Every time you turn around somebody is doing something that demands that the U.S. go to war. I just don’t believe it anymore.
It wasn’t anything to write home about.
WTF, I called it, damn near close, looky here: Ted Cruz came out and said if Obama wants funding for Isis, they will approve support, only if the President kicks all the dreamers out of this country and revokes his executive order.
Ted’s one man that I can’t stand.
What an asshole.
I hate that man (cruz). OTOH I am pissed at Obama for once again giving in on something important…that he took a strong stand for at first. Immigration. Just like the thing with birth control pills and the others…my brain is still not functioning this morning to list them all right now. And…my internet is going out again. Ugh.
I’m relieved on one minor point: At least Obama used the ISIL acronym, instead of ISIS. I dislike calling that terrorist group by an acronym that’s the name of a Goddess, and the name of thousands of women.
Yet I have a sick feeling that I need to put my “Endless War” (End This War) bumper sticker back on my car.
It really didn’t matter what Obama said because he couldn’t have said anything that would have satisfied his critics in the GOP/TP. If he had given to many details they would have ridiculed for saying to much. If he laid out a sketchy outline he gets ridiculed for not being more specific. I personally have been disappointed with his response to the ISIS/ISIL situation, but unlike the critics on the right I have not forgotten WHY we’re in this untenable, never ending situation in the middle east. This is an area of the world where conflict and sect on sect violence has been ongoing for centuries. There was no way we could hope to establish a western style government or economy and believe it would function there. GWB’s war for OIL totally destroyed what was left of the slither of dysfunctional order in Iraq and now the shit has hit the fan.
FWIW, I’m so sick of hearing John McCain & Lady Lindsey talk about what should be done in Iraq I could puke. John McCain is a bitter old fart who’s still pissed that he isn’t POTUS. If he was the POTUS we’d be waging war in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and much of North Africa. He and the rest of the war hawks have been lusting for more war & death since we pulled out of Iraq in 2013 and they won’t be happy until they can shovel more of our money and the lives of our children and grand children into the blood suckers of the military industrial complex.
You have a way of getting to the crux of an issue, Mouse. The shit has indeed hit the fan.
Oh yeah, I am with you on all those points Mouse and I am also disappointed with Obama’s response to the ISIS/ISIL mess.
Thanks Mouse, you speak for me too.
Hey, I haven’t had a chance to finish reading this…but with my dsl service as it is…Here is Juan Cole’s take on: Obama’s ISIL Actions are Defensive, Despite Rhetoric of going on Offense | Informed Comment
It’s really important she hold her seat. I think get NOLA voters to turn out is going to be key. I’m also going to try to register new folks around here. Since they are coming in from places like NYC, they have to be liberal. It would be a disaster if the Senate went republican and I was in a position to try to stop it and did nothing.