Administration officials took to the Sunday shows to provide further details of the president’s plan to deal with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIL), as the group released a third video showing the beheading of a westerner.
"This effort against ISIL is something that we’ll undertake with a broad coalition of nations, Muslim and otherwise. It's something not like the war in Iraq, but rather this is something that is going to be concerted, targeted, and it's a war we have to win," said White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough.
"This is obviously a complicated effort, and that's why the president is going about this in a very painstaking and very prudent fashion. That's why the Secretary of State is now just continuing his efforts to travel throughout the region to get others to join us in this effort, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to lead an international effort, but this is not going to be easy."
McDonough’s comments came during an appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press."
President Barack Obama on Wednesday addressed the nation and outlined a four-part strategy to "degrade, and ultimately destroy," ISIL. The strategy, Obama said, would be achieved with a "broad coalition of partners" led by the United States, but the United States will not place combat troops on the ground.
Secretary of State John Kerry is currently touring the Middle East in an effort to further build the coalition, which reportedly includes about 40 countries. Neither McDonough nor Kerry offered specific details on what each country has agreed to do.
Kerry said the effort, which has largely been carried out in the air, would not be limited to airstrikes.
"People should not think about this, this effort just in terms of strikes. In fact, as some pointed out, that alone is not going to resolve this challenge."
According to Kerry, some in the coalition have indicated they would be open to sending in troops.
"We’re not looking to put troops on the ground. There are some who have offered to do so, but we are not looking for that at this moment anyway," Kerry said.
"What we’re doing right now," Kerry added, "is putting together the whole package, and it’s not appropriate to start announcing this country will do this, this country will do that."
McDonough declined to confirm whether other nations had indicated a willingness to place boots on the ground, on CNN’s "State of the Union," but then deferred to Kerry in other appearances.
"You will hear from Secretary Kerry on this over the coming days, and what he has said is that others have suggested that they’re willing to [places boots on the ground in Syria], but we’re not looking for that right now."
Experts believe troops on the ground will be necessary at some point. The administration has said ground troops are necessary, but that they need to be Syrian and Iraqi troops, and will not be American.
"This is an effort like in Yemen and Somalia, where we will take the fight to our enemies without putting our ground troops into the effort," McDonough said.
The administration has dithered on whether or not the president’s strategy constitutes a war. The Pentagon and the White House called it a "war" with ISIS, but a day before Secretary of State John Kerry rejected using that term.
Kerry walked back those comments on CBS’s "Face the Nation" and called the debate a "waste of time."
"I think frankly there’s kind of a tortured debate going on about terminology. What I'm focused on, obviously, is getting done what we need to get done to ISIL, but if people need find the place to land in terms of what we did in Iraq, originally this is not a war. This is not combat troops on the ground. It's not hundreds of thousands of people. It's not that kind of mobilization, but in terms of al Qaeda, which we have used the word war with, yeah. War with al Qaeda and it’s affiliates and in the same context if you want to use it, yes, we're at war with ISIL in that sense," said Kerry.
The appearances came shortly after ISIL released a video showing a masked man behead David Haines, a British aid worker. Like previous videos released by the group, the attacker threatens to behead another hostage if certain demands are not met.
British Prime Minister David Cameron held a press conference to address the murder of Haines and the ongoing threat.
"There is no option of keeping our heads down that would make us safe. The problem would merely get worse, as it has done over recent months," Cameron said. "We have to confront this menace. Step by step we must drive back, dismantle and ultimately destroy ISIL and what it stands for."
Obama similarly denounced the beheading and said in a statement, "We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice, and to degrade and destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world."