Countdown to action speeds up

BARACK Obama clearly has a timetable for hitting Islamic State terrorists in Iraq, and critically, in Syria, even though he didn’t outline that timetable in his speech.

This timetable means actions are likely to accelerate in days rather than weeks, and when that acceleration starts Australian forces will be deployed in very short order.

The US President gave a fine speech yesterday. He is wrongly criticised for letting the IS situation get out of hand. He is right to be slow to reach for the gun.

That is not to say Obama hasn’t made mistakes, or at times showed weakness. But in this episode the timing of his response has been perfectly reasonable. Crucially, he has brought the American people with him. Two thirds of Americans now favour airstrikes against Islamic State targets.

A strong majority remains opposed to a US ground campaign, which Obama has ruled out, as has Tony Abbott for Australia.

Obama’s critics are wrong to imagine that swifter US action could certainly have prevented the Middle East’s latest range of problems by earlier airstrikes against the terrorists.

Obama’s response has been reasonable and calibrated. In recent weeks he has taken action from the air to stop IS advances and to protect US personnel in Iraq.

The objective of protecting US personnel in Iraq, though well justified in its own terms, also allowed US forces to halt IS advances more generally.

At the same time, the US put huge political energy into getting rid of Nouri al-Maliki as Iraq’s prime minister.

This was a necessary though not sufficient precondition for effective action against Islamic State.

The US is now equally putting a big effort into gaining regional Middle East, and broader allied, support for its strategy in Iraq and Syria. This too is a necessary precondition for effective action.

But the speech served two critical purposes beyond the immediate situation on the ground.

First, Obama declared the US will go after Islamic S tateterrorists in Syria as well as Iraq. That answers a fundamental strategic question. Obama will fight in Syria.

In particular, he promised to be a deadly enemy for the terrorists: “If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven ... I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country.” This is just exactly how the American President should talk.

If America won’t protect its own, it won’t protect its friends. Obama could have been channelling George W. Bush with these words and that is a good thing. For make no mistake, America’s enemies were scared of Bush.

But this feeds into the larger theme of the speech: “American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world.”

America’s presidents always need to reassure the world that Washington will continue to provide the leadership that has defined its global role for the past seven decades. The world wants that leadership. It’s always a bit more doubtful of it with Democrats in the White House. Bill Clinton had to make these sorts of statements over and over.

Of course actions are themselves the most convincing statements. But an American president’s words count for a great deal.

Yesterday, Obama chose the right words.