In the run-up to Wednesday’s prime-time address, the outlines of what the president would say weren’t exactly a state secret. He would pursue a variation of the policy that everyone else in the political establishment (save the minorities arguing for ground troops and for staying out) advocated. That included facilitating political reconciliation in Iraq, launching targeted strikes in Syria, formulating a productive coalition for action, and buttressing Sunni moderates in the region.
Just how widely shared is this prescription? Former Vice President Dick Cheney called more or less for the same ideas during his speech at the American Enterprise Institute earlier Wednesday:
ISIS does not recognize a border between Syria and Iraq –- so neither should we. We should immediately hit them in their sanctuaries, staging areas, command centers, and lines of communication wherever we find them. We should provide significantly increased numbers of military trainers, special operations forces, an intelligence architecture, and air power to aid the Iraqi military and the Kurdish Peshmerga in their counteroffensive against ISIS.