President Obama may have admitted a few weeks ago that the US government didn’t have a strategy to deal with the growing threat of ISIS, which he refers to as ISIL, but it seems to have pulled one together fairly sharpish, as he announced a ‘relentless effort’ to ‘destroy’ the terrorist organisation on Wednesday.
The US and its allies will launch an expanded airstrike on Iraq to ‘roll back’ the terrorists – although it’s stopping short of sending ground troops to the region, he said in the address, which happened just hours before the 13th anniversary of 9/11.
‘We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today. That’s why we must remain vigilant as threats emerge. At this moment, the greatest threats come from the Middle East and North Africa, where radical groups exploit grievances for their own gain. And one of those groups is ISIL — which calls itself the “Islamic State”,’ said the President.
‘I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. 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, [ISIS] through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,’ the President said, in his first prime-time address to the nation in a year. The timeslot signifies the importance of the speech and the seriousness of the threat from ISIS.
He went on: ‘Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL. And any time we take military action, there are risks involved – especially to the servicemen and women who carry out these missions. But 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. 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.’
The US will be on the ground solely to protect humanitarian efforts and facilities, and also to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces to fight ISIS.
There isn’t any known threat to the US from ISIS, but they are worried about the ‘thousands’ of westerners that have been joining the organisation, including quite a few American citizens who are currently fighting as part of ISIS in the Middle East and who are considered serious threats to the US if they try to return.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.