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September 8, 2014

Obama to Push Expanded Offensive Against Islamic State 
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President Obama has launched an effort to rally Congress and the public
behind a sustained offensive against the militant group Islamic State.
Obama is set to meet with Congress on Tuesday followed by a national
address the following day. He discussed the plan Sunday on NBC's Meet
the Press.

President Obama: "We're not looking at sending in 100,000 American
troops. We are going to be, as part of an international coalition,
carrying out airstrikes 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, though, is that over the
course of months we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum
of ISIL, we are going to systematically degrade their capabilities,
we're going shrink the territory that they control, and ultimately we're
going to defeat them."

The United States says it will lead the offensive against the Islamic
State with a so-called "core coalition" of 10 countries. The White House
says the fight could last beyond the end of Obama's term in early 2017.
The news follows a month of U.S. bombing attacks against ISIL fighters
in Iraq. Over the weekend, American warplanes expanded the offensive
with strikes against militants near the Haditha Dam.

 

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