Obama: U.S. to 'start going on some offense' against ISIS

Obama: U.S. to 'start going on some offense' against ISIS

President Obama said Sunday that the United States would soon ramp up its assault on ISIS to "shrink the territory that they control" and to ultimately defeat them.

"The next phase is to now start going on some offense," he said.

In a wide-ranging interview with Meet the Press, Obama said he would address the nation Wednesday to lay out the economic, diplomatic, and military actions he would take to stem ISIS's rise. The plan, he said, would "degrade their capabilities" with the help of an international coalition of allies, though he insisted the campaign would not involve sending ground troops back to Iraq.

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"This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war," he said, arguing it would instead be consistent with the kinds of limited efforts the U.S. has engaged in over the past half-decade in the region.

You can find Obama's entire interview with Chuck Todd here.

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.