Tonight at 9:00pm Eastern President Obama will deliver a speech to the nation outlining his strategy to defeat a rising Islamic terror threat known as ISIS. Oddly some of the speech has already been leaked by the White House:
UPDATE – FULL SPEECH VIDEO:
FULL WH TRANSCRIPTION OF SPEECH HERE
“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.
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.
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 will say. It’s a strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, and is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years”.
It was only a few weeks ago, August 9th, when President Obama told the New York Times it was/is “a fantasy” to support “moderates” within Syria and expect them to be able to defeat radical Sunni Islamists. Now, it appears, he is reversing course and saying the previous “fantasy” will be his specific approach.
It will also be interesting to see if President Obama has ANY reference to Libya or Egypt. Libya is a nation in absolute crisis driven by radical extremists who the president and Hillary Clinton helped bring to power. Egypt, on the other hand, is a nation who has brought radical Islamic jihadism under control, with the leadership of Fatah el-Sisi, DESPITE the efforts of the U.S. administration to undermine his efforts.