Obama previews broad strategy to 'take down' Islamic State
President Obama, in a dinner with foreign policy experts, laid out a comprehensive, long-term strategy to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, saying the terrorist group must be defeated, not contained.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, ahead of an address to the nation Wednesday, laid out a comprehensive, long-term strategy to "take down" Islamic State (IS) militants in a dinner with foreign policy experts at the White House Monday night, in which he expressed optimism about the forging of a US-led coalition to combat the IS threat.
There was a “big emphasis on a comprehensive approach, not trying to divide the problem and solve it in this country and that country,” Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution, told Al-Monitor.
“ISIS is not just a game changer; it is a game changer of almost unique danger, not just for the region, but for the world … because of the nature of the phenomenon, the way it spreads, its brutality and destabilization of countries important to the US,” Talbott said. “Therefore, it is not enough to contain it. … There has got to be a take-down.”
Another attendee at the dinner “came out very impressed with the way that the president has pulled together the various pieces that are in flux on this,” a source, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor. “The president does have his arms wrapped around this, and will lay out a pretty comprehensive, long-term strategy,” involving a military component, going after IS financing, foreign fighters and the ideological side.
