The eu and the United States are ready to take fur thur restrictive measures in response to russias behavior. Russia must admit it is a party to the conflict and take genuine steps that will lead to a de escalation of the conflicted. We must also continue to support ukraine by providing the country with the assistance that it needs. When it comes to the security of our region, the United States engagement here runs deep. Estonia is a close and reliable ally to the United States. We take our naet toe comm nat commitment seriously. Very seriously. We have not sat back and waited for others to take care of our security. Since joining the alliance estonian soldiers have consistently a fought for the freedom of others in began sfan and iraq and most recently in the central republic. We dedicate resources to defense and are increasingly increasing our National Defense capacity. We are grateful to the United States for sending troops here for actively participating in the Baltic Air Policing mission. Yo without a doubt your bilateral contributions have helped set an example for ornate toe allies. A robust and visible ally presence here in estonia is the best way of discouraging any possible aggressors. We look forward to the nato summit tomorrow confirming this. We face a completely new security situation in europe. We are pleased that this is reflected in many of the summits documents. We expect the nato summit in whales to adopt the readiness action plan that will guide allied nations for years to come through a set of practical septembers and me accepts and ms and deterrents. I am pleased our bilateral relations are strong and many other areas including and especially cyber and energy security. Globally we are Work Together to develop common values democracy human rights and rule of law. Estonia is a world leader in Internet Freedom. We have a liberal economy offering many exciting opportunities for increased trade, cooperation and investment and this is also one reason why we believe the t tip is true shall effort on the part of both the European Union and the United States. Let me once again welcome president obama to estonia to northern europe, one of europes most prosperous and successful regions. Our countries share common values and interest. I am certain that together we can and will contribute to the swigs of europe, whole, free and at peace. President ilves i want to thank you and the people of estonia for kel cowelcoming me today. It is an honor to be in estonia as we mark our 10th anniversary of being allies. Thank you for being such a great partner. We have spoken since you were in the u. S. On the situation in the ukraine. Your life reflects the story of your nation the son of refugees who returned home to chart a path for a free and democratic estonia. As many of you know the long journey also took thomas and his family to america, to new jersey where they still remember him as tom. It was wonderful to meet your daughter today and find out she had gone back to new jersey as well. He says he knew Bruce Springsteen before he had his first record. You embody the deep ties between americans and estonians. I want to thank you for your friendship. I have come here today because estonia is one of the Great Success stories among the nations after a cold war. You hold a vibe grant democracy and prosperity. You are a model of how citizens can enter act with their government in the 21st century something ilves championed. They can use their smart phones to get anything online from childrens grades to their health records. I should have called the estonians when we were setting up our healthcare web site. Most of all, i am here because estonia has been a model ally. Estonian forces have served with courage and skill in iraq and afghanistan and we honor our Service Members who made the ultimate sacrifice in afghanistan including nine brave estonians. As nato nears the end of our combat mission in three months i want to thank estonia for the commitments you have made to help sustain Afghan Security forces going forward. As a hightech leader estonia is playing a leading role in protecting nato from cyber threats. Estonia contributes its full share, its full two percent of gdp to the defense of airlines. Estonia meets its responsibilities. As we head to the nato summit in whales estonia is an example of how every nato member needs to do fair share of the collective defense. I come here to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to the security of estonia. Nato allies we have article five duties to our collective defense. That is a commitment that is unbreakable,er unwavering, it is eternal. Estonia will never stand alone. Mr. President ive made sure we are fulling fillifilling that p. I set up Contingency Planning for the defense of the region and nato forces began going through the baltics including estonia for more training and exercises. In response to russias actions in ukraine earlier this year the United States increased our presence further. We have contributed Additional Aircraft to the Baltic Air Policing mission a mission to which 14 ornate toe allies also contributed in the last decade. We are continuously rotating aircraft in the baltics. I look forward to thanking our Service Members later today. My visit to war saw this spring i announced a new initiative to bolster the American Military presence here in europe including in the baltics. We are working with congress to make sure we deliver. Today i can announce it will include Additional Air force units and aircraft for training exercises in the the northern baltic region. We agree with our estonian allies that an ideal location to host and support the exercises would be Amari Air Base here in estonia with the support of congress and our estonian friends i am confident we can make this happen. I look forward to talking about making this happen when we meet with president s this afternoon. As president ilves i wanted indicated we spent a good deal of time on russias aggression against the ukraine. I will have more to thsay about this in my speech today. I want to thank president ilves for being such a strong voice on behalf of the ukrainian people. Estonia provided assist stance in institutions and reforming their economy. Russia is paying a heavy price for its actions. Nato is poised to do more to help ukraine strengthen its forces and defend their country. More broadly i want to commend estonia for being such a strong leader beyond nato whether it is missions in Central African republic or relief efforts for Syrian People helping those in tunisia and standing up for Internet Freedom and humane rights. This punches above its weight. The worlds better forted and yet it is another reason why the United States will always be proud to stand with our ally, gastonia. Finally, i want to say today the prayers of the American People are with the family of the devoted and occur rage gus journalist Steven Sotloff. Overnight our government determined that tragically steven was taken from us in a horrific act of violence. We cannot even begin to image the agony that everyone who loves steven is feeling right now especially his mother, his father and his younger sister. So today our country grieves with them. Like jim foley before him jims life stood in sharp contrast to those who murdered him so brutally. They claim that they kill in the name of religion, but it was steven, his friends say, who deeply loved the islamic world. His killers try to claim they defend the oppressed but it was steven who traveled across the middle east risking his life to tell the story of muslim men and women demanding justice and digni dignity. Whatever they think they determine by doing this they failed. They fail because people around the World Americans are repulsed by their barbarism. We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our result to take the fight against these terrorists and those who make the mistake of harming americans will learn we will not forget and our reach is long and justice will be served. Mr. President. Well i thought we would open things up for questions. I understand two from estonian journalists and two from president obamas entourage. As the host i will get the first opportunity to one of our tough questione questioner questioners. Thank you, thank you. The partnership between russia and nato is not the same as we all know. Why to keep alive the agreement signed in 1997 with russia and nato perhaps push out or give new opportunities to other regions in in estonia, latvia and lithuania . Well, from our side first of all nato dont decide to freeze its relations with russia several months ago. But on the issue in terms of what are the ifrpcatimplication nato russian act we can the do anything because the nato russia founding act reads the nato russia founding act which says these conditions hold to quote, in the current and foreseeable future or the security environment of the current foreseeable future. That was the security environment of 1997 when Boris Yeltsin was president and there had been no violations of either the u. N. Charter of the 1975 helsinki act, the 1990 paris charter. I would argue this is an unforeseen and new security environment and therefore one has to hold on to certain provisions. Does not mean we have to give up the whole act but certainly when an agreement in certain parts no longer hold, well then its time to make a change. When the nato russia founding act has been violated by russia. We continue to support the vision of that document, but its substance has changed dramatically. I am confident that all of natos actions are and will be conducted in accordance with its International Commitment as an alliance. The circumstances clearly have changed, and i think this will be a topic of discussion in whales. Beyond the issue of that particular document, our top priority has been to make sure that there is no ambiguity when it comes to our article 5 commitments to our nato allies. And as a consequence of the rotations that have been increased, the presence of u. S. Troops in the course of those row indications and additional nato allies what we want to send a clear message to everyone is that we take those commitments seriously. I think what is going to be clear during the course of this summit is given the changed landscape not only do we have to make sure that these row indications are effective and designed toward current threats, but more broadly nato has to look at his defense capabilities as a whole and make sure that they are updated and properly resourced for i think a certain period of time there was a complacency here in europe about the demands that were required to make sure that nato was able to function effectively. My former secretary of deef fence i think came here and gave some friendly sharp speeches repeatedly about the need for making certain that every nato member was doing its fair share. I think secretary general rasmussen during the course of his ten tour continued to upgrade our joint capabilities and obviously whats happened in the ukraine is tragic, but i think it gives us an opportunity to look with fresh eyes and understand what it is that is necessary to make sure our nato commitments are met and that is one of the reasons i am here in estonia today. I am going to call on ann compton. Ann is on her farewell tour. Thank you very much, mr. President. Now that you say a second american has been slain, what is your response, will air strikes continue inside iraq . Might they expand into syria . Will you have a full strategy now on isis which will satisfy those like Prime Minister cameron who caused an eminent threat to all of the interests, and will it satisfy some of your supporters like senator fine stein who fears on this you may have been too cautious . Thank you. Keep in mind that from the outset the moment that isis we know the into mosul we were very clear that this was a very serious threat not just to iraq but to the region and to u. S. Interests. We have been putting forward a strategy since that time number one to make sure americans were protected in iraq in our embassies and consulates. Number two, that we worked with iraqis to create a functioning government that was inclusive and could serve as the basis for iraq to begin to go on the offensive. The air strikes we have conducted in supported of americans and conducting humanitarian missions and providing space for the Iraqi Government to form have born fruit. We have seen that in the mountain in most recently the town of amiril which held out against a siege by isil are see form of sunni shiite kurd central government. What we have seen is a strategy we have laid out moving effectively. What i have said from the start is this is not going to be a oneweek or one month or six month proposition. Because of what happened in the vacuum of syria, as well as the battle hardened elements of isis that grew out of al qaeda and iraq during the course of the iraq war, it is going to take time for us to be able to roll them back and it is going to take time for us to be able to form the regional coal anythings that is going to be required so we can reach out to sunni tribes some of the areas isis is occupied. Make sure we have allies on the ground in combination with air strikes we have already conducted. The bottom line is this, our objective is clear to degrade and destroy isil so it is no longer a threat not just to iraq but also the region and to the United States. In order for us to accomplish that the first phase has been to make sure we have an Iraqi Government is in place and we are blunting the momentum that isil was carrying out. Air strikes have done that. But now what we need to do is make sure we have the regional strategy in place that would support ongoing effort not just in the air but on the ground to move that forward. Last week when this question was asked i was specifically referring to a responsibility of a military strategy inside of syria that might require congressional approval. Ifs very important from my perspective that when we send our pilots in to do a job that we know this is a mission that is going to, would, we are clear on what our isntives are and targets are, we have made the case to congress and the American People and we have allies behind us so that it is not just a oneup but it is something over time will be effective. And so bottom line is this, ann. It is not only that we are going to be bringing to justice those who perpetrated this terrible crime against these two fine young men, more broadly, the United States will continue to leave an International Effort against the kind of barbaric and ultimately empty vision they represent. That will take time but we will get it done. Did you just say the strategy is to destroy isis or simply contain them or push them back . We are going to our objective is to make sure isil is not an ongoing threat to the region. We can accomplish that. It is going to take some time, it is going to take some effort. As we have seen with al qaeda, they are alwa there are alway going to be remnant that can cause havoc of any of these networks in part because of the nature of ter rist activities. You get a few individuals they may be able to carry out a terrorist act. What we can do is kind of make sure the systemic and broad based aggression we have seen out of isil that terrorizes primarily mushrooms, shiite, sunni, not just iraqis but people around the region. That is degraded to the point where it is no longer a factor that we have seen being over the last several months. indiscernible the ukraine is facing a difficult time the situation on the ground may become even more complicated in the roundup to the parliamental elections in october. What more could be done and should be done to support ukraine politically, economically and also from Security Point of view . What do you think about the idea of providing the ukrainian process with weapons to counter russias attack in this country more effectively . Thank you. Well, most pornltly ukraine needs above all continued political support. From that support comes decisions that involve everything else, economic aid, human nature c humanitarian aid and also military aid. From that come also decisions on equipment. In whales the nato Ukraine Committee will gather and decide how to increase noit toe defense operation with the ukraine. This is the kind of decision we in nato take together. On the humanitarian side we have doubled our humanitarian and Development Assistance in looking at what more we could do. We have looked at ukrainian soldiers to our topnotch location here and will continue to do so. It is one thing the ukrainians lack that and we have it at a superbbly high level with the assist stance of the United States with the Walter Reed Hospital we have here. The next couple of months leading up to the parliamentary elections will be very tricky. Russia, i predict, will do nevering his power to undermine the election. We saw this already in the case of the president ial elections. It will try to stabilize the government. In kiev and keep Ukrainian Forces from gaining ground in the east. We should be prepared for a tough several or month and a half. The next government of course will be will have the full legitimacy that comes with the new parliamentary elections must show it is a clear and better alternative to the won the people of ukraine ousted half year ago. Ensuring that the elections are carried out in in a free and fair manner will be a top priority for us, for the osce and one of the issues should be the you interference of the elections that be fully addressed and recognized by the moderate ring of elections i think that we all after especially the president ial elections we all know what the russians, Russian Forces can do to disrupt the democratic process. Weshld be better prepared for that when we get to the election. Political support is absolutely vital. One of the goals at the summit over the next soum days is to once again protect unity across nato on behalf of ukraines efforts to maintain vibrancy and territorial integrity. The saipgss we have supplied have had real effect on russia. I think its important for us to continue to impose costs on russia so long as it is violating basic principles of international law. So far we have been able to combine efforts between europe and the United States and some of the allies around the world. The results are a russian economy that is reflecting capital flight putting a burden on the russian economy that at the moment may be over ridden by politics of russia as a result of state run propaganda. We will point to the fact that this is a strategy not serving russia well and not serving ukraine well. The ukrainian economy is something we have been paying a lot of tanks to. We worked with the imf to ensure that ukraine had the resources to get through some of the emergency financing they had to deal with. We will have more work to do. The military effort that had been required to deal with russian finance, russian armed, russian trained russian supported and often russian directed separatists has meanted that has met a drain on the ee cranian economy. Not to mention the fact that you have Major Industrial areas inside of the ukraine that obviously have been impacted by the conflict there. We have to make sure the International Community stands behind the ukrainian economy in the short term. Even as we encourage and advise and help carry out reforms that will be provided in order for them to achieve the kinds of models we have seen in astonia and poland and other places. Thats a tough road to home. It took a couple of decades for some of the countries to achieve the sort of market based reforms that have led to such great prosperity. Ukraine is not going to be able to do that overnight but we have to make sure we are helping build a bridge toward that new future. If we combine those efforts with a commitment to continuing the nato Ukraine Military relationship. They are not a member of nato but they have consistently worked with nato in terms of training and support. I think not only will the ukraine feel that in words we are behind them but they will see we are working with them as well. Steve almond of routers. Will you have this military strategy on isis ready for discussion with nato allies this week and in your view what should nato do to help take on the islamic state. How much stock do you put in the reported cease fire between the ukraine and russia . How do you assess putins motive. It is too early to see what the cease fire means. We have not seen any details just a couple of wire reports. We have consistently supported the effort of the president to achieve a meaningful cease fire that could lead to a political settlement of the conflict. So far it hasnt helped. Russia hasnt been vig louse about it or it is not controlling the accept artists. The accept artists when they thought it was their advantage have not abided by the cease fire. We havent seen a lot of follow up on socalled announced cease fires. Having said that. If in fact russia is prepared to stop financing army training, in many cases joining Russian Troops activities in the ukraine and are serious about a political settlement that is something we have all hoped for. As i have said consistently our preference is a strong productive, cooperative russia. But the way to achieve that is by abiding to International Norms to improving the economy, to focusing on how they could actually produce goods and services that other people want and give opportunity to their people and educate them. Thats not the path they have been pursuing over the past several years, certainly not in evidence when it comes to their strategy of the ukraine. I will leave it up to others who interpret mr. Putins psychology on this. In terms of actions what we have seen is agrelgs gregs and appeals to National Sentiments that have been very vague and are rightly a cause of concern. So there is an opportunity here, lets see if there is follow up. In my discussions with president pore ch porchenko i said he needs to follow up on what he proposed so Eastern Ukraine feels it is fairly represented and russian language speakers are protected against discrimination. This is part of the flat form we encourage them to move forward but no realistic political settlement can be achieved if russia says they are going to continue to send tanks and troops and arms under the guise of accept artists who are not home grown. The only possible settlement is ukraine sees the ability to make its own decisions about insect and its economic future. With rye respect to iraq we will be discussing this pop tick even before isil dominated the headlines. One of the concerns we have had is the development of terrorist networks and organizations separate and apart from al qaeda. Sometimes it is regional and providing terrorist actions. We have seen isis to be the first one that has broken through but we anticipated this a while back and was reflected in my west point speech. We want to get nato to work with us to help these kinds of partnerships regionally. It can combat not just isil bull these kinds of network that arise and potentially de stabilize allies in the region. Already we have seen nato countries recognize the severity of this problem that it is a long one problem, that immediately they have dedicated resources to help us with humanitarian air drops to provide arms to the iraqi Security Forces and we welcome those efforts. What we hope to do is make sure that we are more systematic about how we do it we are more focused about how we do it. Nato is unique in the history in the annals of signs. We have to recognize that threats evolve and fleets have evolved as a consequence of what we have seern in the ukraine but threats ar ee involving in the middle east that have a direct threat on europe. What i said earlier to ann, we know that if we are joined by the International Community, we can continue to shrink isils sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing, test military capabilities to the point where it is a manageable problem. The question is going to go making sure we have the right strategy and the international will to do it. This is something that is a continuation of the problem we have seen certainly since 911 but before and it continues to met its size in different ways. We have to make sure we are organizing the arab world and the muslim world along with the International Community to isolate this cancer. This particular brand of extremism that is first and foremost destructive to the muslim world and the arab world and north africa and the people who live there. They are the ones who are most severely effective. They are the ones who are constantly under threat of being killed. They are the ones whose economies are completely upended to the point where they cant produce their own food and they cant produce the kinds of goods and services to sells in the world marketplace and they are falling behind because of this very small, narrow but dangerous segment of the population. We have got to combat it in a sustained effective way. I am confident we are going to be able to do that. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Well, you were just watching president obama speaking in estonia reassuring them of our commitment to defend them from the newly aggressive russia and also spoke about the beheading video released. We receive add memo from ed henry. He pointed out an odd moment where we had the president of estonia mention off the very beginning the beheading of the second american journalist who has been beheaded by isis and it goes to president obama and it goes 10 minutes into his speech time and finally addresses the issue with our american citizen who was beheaded but instead begins talking about technology in estonia. He did go on to say his thoughts and our countrys thoughts and prayers are with the family of Steven Sotloff his mother, his father and his sister and he is determined to go after isis and is saying they are a threat now and he does have a strategy. Yeah. He compared the lives of these two journalists that were killed at the hands of these barbaric terrorists. He said this will actually unite america saying the mission, we will not rollback and that the goal now will be to form a Regional Commission that our objective is clear and it is to degrade and destroy isis. Strong words i know a lot of americans have been waiting to hear that. We have Team Coverage covering this press conference and the video released yesterday. Lets get right to that. I believe kelly wright is standing by with more on this video the journalist Steven Sotloff beheaded by the isis terrorists. Moments before the News Conference u. S. Officials confirming in fact this video is authentic. This two weeks after journalist james foley met the same fate. They are deserving the message to president obama. Kelly wright has all of the breaking news. The killing of american journalist Steven Sotloff. They call the beheading a crime against humanity. Sotloffs mother made an appeal for her sons life. Instead they release add video called a second message to america to show there has been an execution. It comes two weeks after the group beheaded james foley and the second video the mass executioner in a hood speaks directly to president obama actually taunting him and the president ed breaking his silence overnight. The president vowing justice will be served. We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us to take the fight against these terrorists and those who make a mistake of harming americans learn we will not forget and our reach is long aged justice will be served. The sotloff family grieving prooif shatly. They also spoke on his dedicated journalistic career. He stood in contrast against those who murdered him so brutally. They say they kill in the name of religion but it was freedom who deeply loved the islamic world. The killers try to claim they defend the oppressed but it was steven who traveled across the middle east risking his life to tell the story of muslim men and women demanding justice and dignity. The hooded terrorists speak with a british accent. They are using technology and voice education to hunt that man down. The group says for every air strikes put it to the next of even more americans. Thats why the president wanted to do that so thats is no longer a threat to that region or even the United States and europe. I know that the family specifically sotloff aers father pleaded for the terrorists to freeze her son and not harm him . I know you have read a lot about it. What do you think the familys reks a will be to the president s words this morning . I think many people including the family will be possibly encouraged what the president has to say haez to put together aint National Community it will take a long time for the process to work the evil out of the middle east and from iraq and other countries including here in the United States. The president is making a statement he wants to Form International coalition. The United States cant do this alone it will fire other countries involved. The group is occupying because it degrades the peoples ability to stand up and be the kind of nation they like to be. So the president calling on not only nato forces but also the arab world, the middle east and security a sort of cancer has to be rooted out. This will alwa there will be remnant but they want to take the big threat. They go after them economically. That has been one of the large problems with isis. They work for al qaeda. Any word yet on when they about this video is all conflicted. He was killed yesterday. Actually we dont even know the time line. Any idea when that will happen if he was killed immediately after foley or it happened the day before. The british aut thoughity to trying to authenticate a man with a good and lid. Everybody is on this. This is job nom one. The president had not spoken and that caused a lot of concern bh he said he had no strapt gee. He wanted to be sure he goes before congress to make sure when they start going into syria they have the support of congress as well. So the president making it clear that he would like to get something done to make sure that he deals with this threat, a threat where people in isis are bound to come here to the United States as well as go to europe. Obviously being the depend fender of the defender of the free world he doesnt want to make it happen. Thank you so much kelly wright live for us in the studio. President obama said justice will be served against isis. This one day after deploying more troops to iraq. The question Everyone Wants to know, what is americas strategy to get it done. Peter dos sigh is live in washington. We heard the president layout more specific details for us this morning. Thats right. The president told the world he does have a plan of chipping away at isis. When he said no strategy now he meant the blue print for air strikes of syria. The first step was protecting americans as embassies. Regional ally. Whats the influence isis has . It is not only that we are going to be bringing to justice those who perpetrated this terrible crime against these two fine young men. More broadly, the United States will continue to lead a regional and International Effort against the kind of bar babaric and ultimately empty vision that isil represents. Meanwhile a head of the president s trip our top diplomats explained that we are not technically at war with isis. Listen to this. From a common sense point of view the average american will state to himself this group is at war with us. Why does our president or secretary of state not recognize that and say, indeed, we are at war with this group and we will prove it. I dont think its a new exercise to come back and forth about a new term. Whats important is what we are doing about it. President ed obama wants nato allies to work with him to help fight isis. He is going to go to work to put together partnerships with willing allies later tomorrow when he meets with western leaders. What do you think about him waiting so long to mention the beheading of the american journalist. President astonia right out of the estonia right out of the bat mentioned it. The president talks about obamacare web site talks about Bruce Springsteen and finally addresses the issue. As we see sometimes with these things the president will go in with some prepared remarks and things he wants to say. Estonia is a friendly nation. The point we are in estonia is to show them because they are a former if they cross the border the United States and nato will have their backs. So it is a friendly visit with the estonian president. President obama did get to all of his points he wanted to make about sotloff and given the condolences for the family with his opening remark. Sometimes we need to keep things friendly and light with the world leaders. I think it is up to people watching at home to decide. One thing he did do he addressed the issue where last week he said there was no strategy. In his answer he talked about that being in reference to military action in syria. Do you think that around washin . Well, the president said he explained pretty plainly just that he said there is no strategy for going into syria yet and the reason that he was so clear about that, he basically said that he misspoke last week, but that the reason that there is no strategy yet is because before and that hes not going to rush to send anybody into syria, before he does send american pilots, american any kind of american forces, he wants to make sure that he knows everything that they are going to possibly encounter on the ground. Thats why last week we started with those surveillance flights. He wants to make sure americans are in the best position to succeed and just that so far, that is we have to leave it there. Up against a hard break. Lieutenant colonel tony shaffer is up after the break to answer more questions for us. Stay with us. Ome experts work with equity experts who work with regional experts who work with Portfolio Management experts thats when expertise happens. Mfs. Because there is no expertise without collaboration. Imagine or keyboards. E without any guitars. Drums. Or a microphone and being expected to roar. Tough right . Its the same with our teachers who are using their own money so students can learn. Donorschoose. Org is a charity that helps teachers get what they need for students to succeed. Join us. Lets make roar happen. Our objective is clear and that is to degrade and destroy isis so that its no longer a threat, not just to iraq, but also the region and to the United States. In order for us to accomplish that, the first phase has been to make sure weve got an Iraqi Government thats in place and we are blunting the momentum that isil was carrying out and the air strikes have done that. Joining us to weigh in on these statements the senior fellow at the london policy research and center for advanced studies Lieutenant Colonel tony shaffer. Thanks for being with us this early. Thanks for having me. Youve been watching the president speak. He talked about isis, now its a very serious threat, putting tother a moving effectively, wants to destroy and degrade isis and make sure theyre not an ongoing threat in the region. This comes on the heels of saying he doesnt have a strategy, but then he says today he was referring to putting troops on the ground in syria which needs congressional approval. What do you make of this today . Do you think people will be critical of this is. I think we need to look at this through everything he said. If we accept exactly what he just said, that hes had a strategy, he actually mentioned elements of the strategy in his west point speech, if you accept all that, hes been derelict of his duty. According to him, hes known this is a growing threat, weve seen this coming and yet we did nothing. You cant have it both ways. You cant say weve been studying and watching it and yet we failed to act. So what he said today is still not a strategy. A strategy is something i dont mean to lecture the president , but a strategy is something that includes something both hard and soft power, it includes specific achievable objectives and has to do with a broad term a broad, long look at the entire region. What he listed today were tactics. The tactic of going after isis, the way hes outlined, is a tactic, part of a larger scheme of things that must be done. Hes talked about going after the money. Thats a tactic. What we need to do is look at what our end goals are. Then you look at what you want to achieve and you plan the elements of National Power to achieve that. Weve not done that. The president has not laid out a strategy and for goodness sake, i hope he shows up at nato with a better set of reasoning than what he laid out here. I did one thing specifically that he said, i did want to ask you about, because we know that this administration is very careful about semantics and what words they use and he said specifically, if we are joined by the International Community, then and ill paraphrase this we can lessen the influence, the financing and the military capability of isis so it is a manageable problem. Is it possible to make isis a manageable problem . That goes to my point. He claims hes known this for a while and it somehow became unmanageable. To become unmanageable and now want to get it back to manageable we have to now go out and achieve certain things. The London Center for policy research who i belong to weve had a strategy since july. Weve talked about the things that must be done. The first thing that must be done, the president said, we need to blunt the military ability of isis to do what its doing. That means going into syria. That should have been part of the plan from day one if he was serious. Secondly when we look at this regarding longterm stability we have to engage allies. Weve put forth the idea of a nato for the arab world. Hes going to nato, going to be talking to the nato leaders. If it worked for europe and hopefully it will work now to stem the russian advances in ukraine, if nato is effective we need to look at a nato format for the middle east for the egyptians, for the turks, saudis, jordanians for our allies. This precludes us having to put boots on the ground. The kurds should be part of that. The kurds are very effective in their fighting ability and what theyre doing. The president has elements of it here. Its not all bad. Hes not focused it properly and to be effective he has to have a strategy and its not just about isis. Its about all of radical islam. Right now libya has problems. Were going to talk about it this morning. Didnt have time to get to it. The missing aircraft in libya. Theres huge issues that go beyond isis and until the president recognizes he needs a regional strategy that includes all of radical islam, that includes our allies we dont have a strategy. What do we know about those . There were 11 missing commercial jetliners takingen from the airport in tripoli and now getting a warning from the United States, from the white house saying it could be used to carry out terrorist attacks on the anniversary of 9 11. Pretty scary. Yes. This is another result. The destabilization of libya is because of president obamas policy. Weve got to understand our actions have consequences if we act badly or acting not at all. We need to do something because these missing aircraft im more concerned about europe than i am the United States. These aircraft could do great grave damage to a number of cities in europe. With that said, it takes skill, it takes training, to use these aircraft effectively. So we need to again this is Something Else president obama needs to look at with our european allies and figure and chart a strategy and course forward. Thank you. Colonel shaffer, for joining us, we appreciate your time. Strong words from president obama on isis saying that we have an objective, it is clear, to degrade and destroy isis. Fox friends will, of course, continue our coverage this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. Well be back at 5 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning. Good morning. It is wednesday, september 3rd. Im ilves hhis best hasselbeck. The president just confirmed the video is, in fact, the beheading of journalist steve sotloff. He said justice will be served but where in the world is the strategy . So are we or are we not at war with isis . Is there any doubt on your part or the part of this administration that, in fact, the United States is at war with i this . I dont think its a useful exercise to go back and forth about new terms. Are you kidding me . Why the Administration Simply cant call it what it is. All right. And sh