David Brooks: 'You Have to Salute' Obama for 'Straightfoward' ISIS Strategy

In the moments following President Barack Obama’s address to the nation about his strategy in dealing with the ISIS threat in the Middle East on PBS’s “NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks praised Obama with a number caveats for what he laid out in that address.

“I thought it was pretty clear – pretty clear and straightforward,” Brooks said. “I think a president should always be saluted when they go against their natural inclinations. His inclination is not to use military force. It’s certainly not to insert American power and American bombs into another Arab country and that’s what we’re going to be doing. But I thought they laid out a four-point strategy that was reasonably clear and it’s pretty ambitious. I guess the question I would ask is he said our goal’s clear — to destroy ISIS. What happens if air strikes don’t do it? What happens if the Iraqi army can’t do it? What if the Free Syrian army can’t take some ground in Syria? If that stuff doesn’t happen and our goal is clear to destroy ISIS, what’s the next step? But I think so far you have to salute him for a pretty clear, pretty straightforward strategy.”

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