President Barack Obama will deliver a speech to Americans and consult with lawmakers this week to sell his plan to go on the offensive against Islamic State militants, according to The Associated Press.
Obama said that in his remarks on Wednesday he would "describe what our game plan's going to be," the AP reported. He will meet congressional leaders on Tuesday to seek their support for his strategy to halt the militant Islamist group known as ISIS.
Obama indicated he did not believe he needed additional authorization from Congress to carry out the plan, although he intends to consult with lawmakers and might seek approval for additional funds, according to the AP.
"I'm confident that I have the authorization that I need to protect the American people," Obama said, the AP reported. "But I do think it's important for Congress to understand what the plan is, to have 'buy in,' to debate it."
Obama's comments also seemed tailored to head off the fears of some Americans and anti-war members of his own party of another full-scale war, the AP reported. He ruled out sending U.S. ground troops to fight the militants in Iraq or Syria.
"I'm preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from ISIL," Obama said in an interview aired on Sunday with NBC's "Meet the Press" program, using an acronym for Islamic State, according to the AP. "The next phase is now to start going on some offense," he added, promising to "defeat" the group.
The speech underscores the degree to which Islamic State has become an urgent issue for the United States, the AP reported.
The Sunni militants have seized territory in northern Iraq and eastern Syria, declared a border-blurring Islamic caliphate and released grisly videos of the beheading of two U.S. journalists it had held hostage.
