Obama to reveal plan against ISIS
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- President Barack Obama will address the country Wednesday to explain to the nation "what our game plan is going forward" in the fight against ISIS.
In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama expressed confidence that the United States, with help from regional partners, will be able to wipe out the terror organization.
"I just want the American people to understand the nature of the threat and how we're going to deal with it and to have confidence that we'll be able to deal with it," the President told interviewer Chuck Todd.
He said action will include military, diplomatic and economic components. He laid out a three-stage plan that starts with actions the U.S. has already taken: gathering increased intelligence on ISIS, and using airstrikes to protect American personnel, critical Iraqi infrastructure like the Mosul Dam, and cities such as Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.
U.S. airstrikes target ISIS fighters near 2nd-largest dam in Iraq
"The next phase is now to start going on some offense," he said. "We have to get an Iraqi government in place, and I'm optimistic that next week we should be able to get that done."
He said his speech won't announce the involvement of U.S. ground troops. "We're not looking at sending 100,000 American troops," he vowed.
The President gave his most direct and detailed assessment of ISIS since the terrorist group has brutally decapitated two American journalists and killed thousands of Iraqis. It is a vastly different message than he gave nearly two weeks ago, when he said the U.S. didn't have a strategy "yet" to deal with ISIS in Syria, and in January, when he called it and other groups the JV team.
"Well, they're not a JV team," Obama said in Sunday's "Meet the Press" interview.
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Obama to reveal plan against ISIS