Obama outlines strategy to 'ultimately destroy' Islamic State

The United States and its allies aim to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the militant group Islamic State, President Obama said Friday as he began to outline a U.S. strategy focused on gathering partners from Sunni Arab states and aiding fighters on the region's front lines.

“Our goal is to act with urgency but also make sure that we're doing it right, that we have the right targets, that there's support on the ground … that we have a strong political coalition,” Obama said at a news conference as a NATO summit wrapped up in Wales.

In one respect, his remarks were a damage-control effort aimed at undoing the political problems he caused last week by saying that his administration did not yet have a strategy to combat the militant group, at least in the territory it controls in Syria. They also served as a rebuttal to a growing chorus of critics who've described Obama's foreign policy as deliberative to the point of dithering.

Read the full article at The Los Angeles Times.