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After being hammered from both sides of the political aisle, President Obama will finally unveil his strategy for confronting ISIS in both Iraq and Syria.

After meeting with congressional leaders of both parties on Tuesday, the president will deliver a speech on Wednesday, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the terror attacks on September 11th 2001.

The New York Times reported on Sunday, the Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that may take three years to complete, requiring a sustained effort that could last until after President Obama has left office, according to senior administration officials.

The plan the president is anticipated to give has three distinct phases, the first phase which is already currently under way involves the protection of ethnic and religious minorities and includes American diplomatic, intelligence, and military personnel, to include their facilities.  This includes rolling back gains made by ISIS in northern and western Iraq.

The next phase of the president’s proposed strategy would to insure a more inclusive government in Baghdad, which would begin after Iraq, forms a government.  This would include training, advising, and equipping the Iraqi military, Kurdish fighters known as the Peshmerga, and finally trying to get the buy in from members of the Sunni tribes.

The most challenging of all the phases to be outlined by the president is how to take the fight to the heart of ISIS in Syria, but military planners stated this could take months and could last until the next administration.

The New York Times reported  Mr. Obama will use a speech to the nation on Wednesday to make his case for launching a United States-led offensive against Sunni militants gaining ground in the Middle East, seeking to rally support for a broad military mission while reassuring the public that he is not plunging American forces into another Iraq war.

“What I want people to understand,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that was broadcast Sunday, “is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum” of the militants. “We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities; we’re going to shrink the territory that they control; and, ultimately, we’re going to defeat them,” he added.

Members of both political parties want the president to give specifics in what his strategy will be. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of both the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committees, wants the president to target command and control centers and oil refineries control Islamic militants.

“First, clearly explain to the American people what our national security interests are in the region” and spell out the risk that Islamic State militants pose “for us, short-term and long-term, and why they matter,” Rubio said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Real Clear Politics reported that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, the president needs to lay out a strategy that the American people can understand.

Feinstein mentioned the president needs to articulate clearly his military and diplomatic components to his strategy.

Now there are considerable challenges for the president, first one being who is the point person in Iraq that will help guide the new Iraq government to become more inclusive, will it be the current Iraqi Ambassador Stuart Jones?  Will it be the Vice President who the president selected back in 2010 to handle the transition and withdrawal of U.S. forces?

When does the president plan on sending military equipment to Iraq and the Kurdish fighters? What kind of equipment will the president send?  The Kurdish fighters have been complaining for months they are fighting ISIL with outdated weaponry against the better equipped ISIS militants.

The president repeatedly stated he wants no “boots on the ground,” but who is going to train the Kurds and the Iraqi military? If not us, then who?

How will the president leverage our Arab allies when they have a strong mistrust of the president?

Finally, the most controversial of all the phases the president will lay out how will the president take the fight to ISIS in Syria?

I guess we will have to wait until Wednesday when the president unveils his plan.