Obama's ISIS Speech - Sara Strauss

President Barack Obama’s speech regarding ISIL, the growing Iraq-Syrian based terrorist group, outlined a four step plan to inevitably degrade and destroy ISIL. According to Obama, the first step to destroy ISIL was to use American and Iraqi air force strikes to strategically target and demolish ISIL terrorists, weapons and camps. The second step Obama suggested was to increase our force on the ground in Iraq with the mission to “support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence and equipment.” The third step in Obama’s plan prevents future ISIS attacks by mobilizing international forces to ally our efforts. Obama’s last step in destroying ISIS provides assistance to victims affected by the terrorist activities of ISIL. Obama never used the word war during his speech to describe the action he was going to take against ISIL. However, when Obama said “we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” and continued to describe sending additional military ground forces into Iraq and violent air strikes against ISIS, I immediately thought of war. “Degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL,” seems like war to me, no matter how it is completed. We can only hope that by avoiding the word war Obama is assuring hesitant Americans like myself, that this will not be another long Iraq war, but instead a short lived military movement that will quickly destroy ISIL and any threat they pose.