Obama Addresses the Nation About ISIS

America is expected to be the leader of the free world, the torchbearer of freedom.  In this case, with this president, America is slow to defend those being overrun by the brutal forces of ISIS.  President Obama is only now reluctantly coming before the American people and stating his plan of action against ISIS.  He is performing half heartedly at best.

President Obama appears to think that a congressional vote is not necessary for a war carried out by air strikes, only if boots are on the ground.  He is so quick to say there will be no boots are on the ground. That's not the truth, however, as there are the boots of Special Forces and intelligence gatherers on the ground, just maybe not what regular people think of as military boots. War is war, as far as the Constitution is concerned.  One would think that a man who ran as a self-proclaimed constitutional scholar would not make that distinction.

George W. Bush's coalition of 37 countries was called "unilateralism" by anti-war Americans and others but Obama touts a "broad coalition" now of 9 countries - all a part of NATO, except Australia.

President Obama said "This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist. This strategy is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years."  Think about that. Those two places are a mess.  Maybe he hasn't gotten the news from the media where he has stated he gets information in the past.  Is he asleep during presidential briefings?

There is no way that the Iraqi army and the Kurds can protect themselves and defeat ISIS without the help of the U.S. military. Despite all the time wasted as Obama insisted the war on terror was over and that the war in Iraq had ceased and Iraq was now stable, ISIS continued to grow.  This president has been unable to muster the courage to admit he was dangerously wrong about foreign policy and his ideas have been failures.  We are not safe as ISIS grows wealthier and gains more land mass.  Make no mistake, ISIS is truly a threat to our homeland.

THIS ARTICLE sums up the curious inability of President Obama to grasp reality. A mere 34 days ago, he said that ISIS was like a "JV" team.

Americans want to join together and support our president.  Though he said,"we will degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL", he  does not inspire confidence. Other countries no longer trust or respect us. It seems that he is being pulled into action - that the American people are out in front of him, war weary though we are.

This president is seeing the lowest numbers in the polls that his presidency has seen.  This whole revision of his previous stances, now that other nations and the clear majority of American people demand action, smacks of poll watching.  That is no way to protect America. Our president has a 9/10/01 mind set instead of a post 9/11/01 mind set.

HERE is the speech transcript. You can decide if you find clear thought and strategy.  All I really got out of it is more air strikes, no land combat, and he'll ask Congress for money to provide equipment to those fighting the war on the ground. This speech should have been made more than a year ago.