Obama expected to outline US plan to defeat ISIS militants

President Obama will tell Americans in a speech Wednesday his plans to combat Islamic State militants in the Middle East.

The president disclosed his plans during an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'

Obama will outline his plan after meeting Tuesday in the Oval Office with Capitol Hill leaders -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

'What I'm going to ask the American people to understand is that this is a serious threat,' Obama told NBC. 'We have the capacity to deal with it, and here's how we'll deal with it. This will require some resources above what's already in there.'

Obama also said that he has not seen any immediate intelligence of threats to the U.S. homeland, and suggested he will not seek congressional approval for additional airstrikes on Islamic State, the militant group formerly known as ISIS.

When Congress was on summer break, the president ordered strikes on the group's military targets in Iraq, saying in was a humanitarian effort to protect U.S. personnel and Iraqi minorities.

There has been widespread speculation that the United States will now go after Islamic State targets in Syria. However, the president suggested Sunday that he will not seek congressional approval for additional strikes.

The interview was conducted Saturday at the White House shortly after Obama returned from a NATO summit in Wales, where the Islamic State threat was a key topic of discussion. The speech will come one day before the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Obama restated his opposition to sending U.S. ground troops to engage in direct combat with the militants, who have laid claim to large swaths of territory in Iraq, targeted religious and ethnic minority groups, and threatened U.S. personnel and interests in the region.

At Obama's direction, the U.S. military has conducted more than 130 airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq in the past month. In retaliation, the group recently beheaded two American journalists it had been holding hostage in Syria, where the organization also operates.

Lawmakers have pressed Obama to expand the airstrikes into Syria. He has resisted so far, but said he has asked his military advisers for options for pursuing the group there.

In the interview, Obama said the U.S. would not go after the Islamic State group alone, but would operate as part of an international coalition and continue airstrikes to support ground efforts that would be carried out by Iraqi and Kurdish troops.

At the NATO summit, the U.S. and nine allies agreed to take on the militants because of the threat they pose to member countries.

Obama's emerging strategy depends on the formation of a new government in Iraq, as well as cooperation and contributions from regional partners, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey. Obama said he expected the Iraqi government to be formed this week.

'What I want people to understand ... is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL,' he said, using an alternate name for the group. 'We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We're going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately we're going to defeat them.'

Last month, while vacationing on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, Obama was criticized for heading to the golf course minutes after he appeared in public to angrily denounce the Islamic State militants for the videotaped killing of American journalist James Foley.

Asked whether he wanted a do-over by new 'Meet the Press' host Chuck Todd, Obama said that, while there will always be tough news somewhere, he 'should've anticipated the optics' of immediately going to play golf after delivering that statement in which he said he had just gotten off the phone with Foley's parents.

But Obama said the more important question is whether he is getting the policies right and whether he is protecting the American people and, on that score, he said, 'I think I've done a very good job during the course of these last, close to six years.'

contributed to this report.



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