NEW YORK TIMES: NEWPORT, Wales — President Obama escalated the American response to the marauding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Friday, recruiting at least nine allies to help crush the organization and offering the outlines of a coordinated military strategy that echoes the war on terror developed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, more than a decade ago.
In his most expansive comments to date about how the United States and its friends could defeat ISIS, a once-obscure group of Sunni militants that has now upended the Middle East and overshadowed Al Qaeda, Mr. Obama said the effort would rely on American airstrikes against its leaders and positions, strengthen the moderate Syrian rebel groups to reclaim ground lost to ISIS, and enlist friendly governments in the region to join the fight…
He said that “we are going to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL, the same way that we have gone after Al Qaeda,” using an alternate acronym for ISIS. He drew the analogy to Pakistan as an example of how the United States can go to war against militants while limiting the number of American ground combat troops.… (more)
EDITOR: Has President Obama established a new paradigm for American foreign policy? Is possible future president Mitt Romney likely to deviate?
