Barack Obama - On U.S. Intervention in Iraqi Civil War lyrics

Well, this is an area that we've been watching with a lot of concern not just over the last couple of days but over the last several months, and we've been in close consultation with the Iraqi government. Over the last year, we have been providing them additional a**istance to try to address the problems that they have in Anbar, in the northwestern portions of the country, as well as the Iraqi and Syrian border. That includes, in some cases, military equipment. It includes intelligence a**istance. It includes a whole host of issues. But what we've seen over the last couple of days indicates the degree to which Iraq is going to need more help. It's going to need more help from us, and it's going to need more help from the international community. So my team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective a**istance to them. I don't rule out anything, because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter. Part of the challenge -- and I've said this directly to Prime Minister Maliki, and Vice President Biden has said this in his very frequent interactions with the Iraqi government -- is that the politics of Shia and Sunni inside of Iraq, as well as the Kurds, is either going to be a help in dealing with this jihadist situation, or it's going to be a hindrance. And frankly, over the last several years, we have not seen the kind of trust and cooperation develop between moderate Sunni and Shia leaders inside of Iraq, and that accounts in part for some of the weakness of the state, and that then carries over into their military capacity. So I think it's fair to say that in our consultations with the Iraqis there will be some short-term, immediate things that need to be done militarily, and our national security team is looking at all the options. But this should be also a wakeup call for the Iraqi government. There has to be a political component to this so that Sunni and Shia who care about building a functioning state that can bring about security and prosperity to all people inside of Iraq come together and work diligently against these extremists. And that is going to require concessions on the part of both Shia and Sunni that we haven't seen so far. The last point I'll make -- what's happened over the last couple of days I think underscores the importance of the point that I made at my West Point speech: the need for us to have a more robust regional approach to partnering and training partner countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa. We're not going to be able to be everywhere all the time, but what we can do is to make sure that we are consistently helping to finance, train, advise military forces with partner countries, including Iraq, that have the capacity to maintain their own security. And that is a long and laborious process, but it's one that we need to get started. That's part of what the Counterterrorism Partnership Fund that I am going to be calling for Congress to help finance is all about, giving us the capacity to extend our reach without sending U.S. troops to play Whack-A-Mole wherever there ends up being a problem in a particular country. That's going to be more effective. It's going to be more legitimate in the eyes of people in the region, as well as the international community. But it's going to take time for us to build it. In the short term, we have to deal with what clearly is an emergency situation in Iraq.