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SUMMARY: In a prime-time address Wednesday night, President Barack Obama tried to rally Americans to fight the Islamic State militant group operating out of Iraq and Syria. Reaction to the president’s speech and policy ranged from support to skepticism to questions of a lack of specifics. New York Times columnist David Brooks said it was a “clear, straightforward” speech, but asked, “What’s the next step?” Syndicated columnist Mark Shields noted that the president laid out a “big set of promises,” but “made the case against [the Islamic State group] better than he made the case for his own action.”
"Analyzing potential challenges of fighting the Islamic State" PBS NewsHour 9/11/2014
Excerpt
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): And we get a broader assessment of the president’s plan now from Stephen Hadley. He was national security adviser to President George W. Bush. He now has his own consulting company. Richard Haass was the director of policy planning at the State Department during the George W. Bush administration. He’s currently president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Michèle Flournoy was undersecretary of defense for policy during the first term of the Obama administration. She’s now chief executive officer at the Center for a New American Security. And retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich is professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University. His latest book is “Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country.”
And we welcome all four of you back to the program.
I want to go around and ask all of you to start with whether you think the president has laid out a plan that is headed in the right direction.
Michèle Flournoy, you first.
MICHELE FLOURNOY, Former Defense Department official: I would say absolutely.
I think the president made — laid out a very comprehensive strategy, a very clear strategy, showed a lot of resolve, determination to put together an international coalition to go after the ISIL threat. I think the real challenge here is the devil’s in the details.
And as has been alluded to by many commentators, the — making this work on the Syrian side of the border is going to be a lot harder than making it work on the Iraqi side.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we’re going to get to that.
Stephen Hadley, overall, is this a plan that sounds like it’s doing the right thing?
STEPHEN HADLEY, Former U.S. National Security Adviser: I think so. I think the president had a very good night last night.
I think, as Michèle said, he laid out a clear assessment of the risk, what he wanted to do. And he reminded the American people that America is uniquely positioned and really the only country that can put this together.
The question will be: Is this a one-time speech, or will he continue to talk to the American people about the importance of this issue? And will they have an implementation and execution plan that works? And I think the appointment of Gen. Allen to coordinate this is a very good sign.
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