President Barack Obama stepped up his bid to convince Americans he has a plan to defeat the Islamic State, meeting top congressional leaders and scheduling a primetime speech for Wednesday.
Obama will summon the symbolic weight of a televised address to the nation at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Thursday), speaking from the ceremonial state floor of the White House.
The speech will attempt to redress criticism that he has been slow to respond to the militant group´s blitzkrieg advances in Syria and Iraq.
Obama will enlist public support for a new military venture abroad at a historic moment — the eve of the 13th anniversary of the September 11 attacks which have scarred the American psyche with their brutality.
“The president will lay out what he clearly sees as American interests in this situation,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in his daily briefing Tuesday.
“He´ll talk about the risks that the United States faces, and he´ll talk about the strategy that he has put together to confront those risks, to mitigate them, and ultimately to degrade and destroy ISIL,” he said, using an alternative acronym for IS.
