President Obama signaled on Sunday that he doesn’t intend to ask Congress to authorize additional military action against the Islamic State, but suggested he could seek a vote to make available additional resources.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Obama told host Chuck Todd that he plans to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday to brief them on his strategy for degrading and defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The president said it’s important for Congress to debate the matter but emphasized that he believes existing power allows him to go on the offensive against ISIS and that he doesn’t need fresh authority.
The president intends to lay out his plans to the American people on Wednesday in a speech. He declined to elaborate, other than to say that his strategy does not involve U.S. ground forces being redeployed to Iraq. Pressed by Todd on how Syria figures into his strategy for defeating ISIS, Obama was vague. One issue, however, the president was specific:
“This is not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops; this is not the equivalent of the Iraq war. What this is, is similar to the kinds of counter-terrorism campaigns that we’ve been engaging in, consistently, over the last five, six, seven years,” Obama said.
Some members of Congress from both parties have argued that the Obama should seek approval from the House and Senate for any expanded military operation targeting ISIS. But Obama said he does not believe that is necessary.
“I am going to be asking Congress to make sure that they understand and support what our plan is, and it’s going to require some resources, I suspect, above what [we’re] currently doing,” the president said. “I’m confident that I’ve got the authorization I need to protect the American people. And I’m always going to do what’s necessary to protect the American people. But I do think it’s important for Congress to understand what the plan is, to have buy-in, to debate it, and that’s why we’ve been consulting with Congress throughout.”
