On Thursday's NBC Today, several hours after NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel ripped President Obama's strategy to combat ISIS as being "wildly off-base," correspondent Peter Alexander promoted the commander-in-chief's Wednesday primetime address: "President Obama announced that he would lead a broad coalition to destroy ISIS....The war will be more like those in Yemen and Somalia, Mr. Obama stressed..." [Listen to the audio]
At the core of Engel's criticism of the President was the notion that the same strategy used to combat Al Qaeda forces in places like Yemen and Somalia could also be used to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Engel dismissed the idea as "an oversimplification of the problem," warning that the situations were "not comparable at all."
While Engel was not featured on the morning show to refute Obama's war plan, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd appeared immediately following Alexander's report to continue touting it: "...he's hoping that somehow the same strategy that has worked to degrade Al Qaeda in places in the ungoverned parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, is somehow gonna work here.... I don't think anybody has any doubt that when the U.S. military wants to go about doing this – we did it with Al Qaeda, they can do it with ISIS."
Hours before Obama's Wednesday night address, after excerpts of it had been released, Engel informed NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams that the President's approach would not work:
In northern Iraq, these U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters are pushing ISIS back....But in the larger war against ISIS, this is a minor front. The U.S. has no such trusted partners elsewhere. In Syria the moderate rebels the administration hopes to partner with have never been weaker. In Iraq, the U.S.-trained army fell apart....ISIS spread where Iraq and Syria collapsed. And now with few allies on the ground, the U.S. is stepping in, again. The President has repeatedly stressed, Brian, that there will be no American boots on the ground fighting ISIS, that it will be done by local partner forces instead. The problem, Brian, is except for right here, those partners don't exist.
Despite that clear rejection of what Obama was about to announce, moments prior to the 9 p.m. ET hour presidential speech, Todd told Williams: "This war against ISIS...he is going to combat them the same way he has gone after Al Qaeda in places like Yemen, Afghanistan, the ungoverned parts of Pakistan and Somalia."
Despite NBC's top foreign policy expert repeatedly telling his colleagues that Obama's strategy was wrong, it didn't stop the network from uncritically parroting the military plan to viewers.
Here is a full transcript of the September 11 coverage on Today:
7:00 AM ET TEASE:
MATT LAUER: "No safe haven." The President announces a broad expansion of the U.S. military's role in the battle against ISIS, including for the first time, air strikes in Syria.
BARACK OBAMA: We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country wherever they are.
7:02 AM ET SEGMENT:
LAUER: We want to begin on this Thursday morning with that pledge from President Obama during a primetime speech to the nation to destroy the terror group ISIS. NBC's national correspondent Peter Alexander is joining us now from the White House. Hi, Peter, good morning.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: President Lays Out ISIS Strategy; Vows to Target Terror Group "Wherever They Are"]
PETER ALEXANDER: Hi, Matt, good morning. After weeks of criticism that he did not have a clear strategy, President Obama announced that he would lead a broad coalition to destroy ISIS. A group that he said was unique in its brutality. The President promising expanded air strikes that'll hit targets in Iraq and now we've learned Syria as well. He insisted the U.S. will not be dragged into another ground war.
Vowing what he called a "steady relentless effort," President Obama put it plainly, the U.S. is at war with ISIS.
BARACK OBAMA: We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country wherever they are.
ALEXANDER: For the first time, the President said he is prepared to launch air strikes in neighboring Syria, where ISIS fighters kidnapped and killed two American journalists.
OBAMA: This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.ALEXANDER: While again ruling out U.S. combat troops, the President announced 475 more American troops will head to Iraq to advise their security forces. The war will be more like those in Yemen and Somalia, Mr. Obama stressed, not Iraq and Afghanistan. And while emphasizing that ISIS is a danger to the Middle East, he also offered a blunt warning.
OBAMA: If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including to the United States.
ALEXANDER: Still, the President conceded eradicating a cancer like ISIS is not without significant challenges.
OBAMA: Anytime we take military action, there are risks involved. Especially to the service men and women who carry out these missions.
ALEXANDER: The President has repeatedly insisted he has the authority to target ISIS, but on Wednesday night, welcomed congressional support for his strategy.
OBAMA: I believe we are strongest as a nation when the president and congress work together.
ALEXANDER: But the President's toughest critics say once again he missed the mark.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [R-AZ]: ISIS is well armed, which they are – have huge control of areas as large as the state of Indiana. Obviously, he doesn't understand the nature of the threat.
ALEXANDER: Here at the White House, senior administration officials tell NBC News that Saudi Arabia will host training for many of those anti-ISIS fighters. President Obama notably didn't mention any timetable, no estimated cost. But it is clear that he'll likely be the second straight president to pass his successor an unfinished war, Matt, just like he inherited one when he first took office.
LAUER: Alright Peter Alexander at the White House. Peter, thanks very much.
TOM BROKAW: We're going to go now to our political director and NBC's director – moderator of Meet the Press. That's Chuck Todd, of course, who was watching the speech last night. Chuck, let's begin with the obvious. The President is staking his presidency really on this move, this is a very dramatic change in his policies in the Middle East. Not so long ago, he was trying to disengage from that war. Now he's reigniting it. And he's putting a big bet on the troops on the ground there, who come from Iraq and Saudi Arabia and other places, to be partners. That's a big risk, isn't it?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: President Lays Out ISIS Strategy; Was President Effective In Making His Case?]CHUCK TODD: It is. And, in fact, you know, he's hoping that somehow the same strategy that has worked to degrade Al Qaeda in places in the ungoverned parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, is somehow gonna work here. But the question is, will others truly put boots on the ground in Syria? What happens when the U.S. military does destroy ISIS? I don't think anybody has any doubt that when the U.S. military wants to go about doing this – we did it with Al Qaeda, they can do it with ISIS. What happens to Syria then? What happens to that vacuum? That's something the President didn't address last night.
While the country is clearly horrified over what they saw in those beheadings and they want some action, they want something, I don't know if it's going to be something that is going to be as quick as the country thinks it's going to be.
BROKAW: Chuck, the latest poll that you indicated showed that 61% of the people think it is now time to do something about ISIS. Can that help him with his Republican adversaries on the Hill?
TODD: Well, it is. I mean, look, he's going to get some support for what he wants to do. He wants some money to train the Syrian opposition. But what does that opposition look like and what is it going to be that it's going to take a long period of time to do this? And that's something that I think that over time you're gonna start seeing some on Capitol Hill saying, "Alright, there's no end date in this. Is it the type of war that's just never going to end?" And once you get rid of ISIS, who comes next? And that's the part of this that I think the President failed to address last night and something's he's gonna wish he did.
BROKAW: Alright, thanks very much. Chuck Todd, who's our political director, moderator of Meet the Press.
And my guess is, Matt, that this move that he's making will define the rest of his presidency. There are going to be a lot of other issues that will play out in the next two years, but unless he succeeds here, or if he fails here, that will be the marker in his final two years.
LAUER: I think you're right on that, Tom. Thank you very much. And, Chuck, thank you very much.
