President Obama said US intelligence had underestimated the threat posed by the Islamic State and overestimated the Iraqi Army’s ability to confront the group. He also said part of the solution will be military. “We just have to push them back, and shrink their space, and go after their command and control, and their capacity, and their weapons, and their fueling, and cut off their financing, and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters.” House Speaker Boehner recommended that Congress consider a resolution authorizing the use of force for this mission, even though Obama already has the power to order airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s Syrian branch, warned of retaliation for the US campaign in Syria. Alton Nolen, a recent Muslim convert charged in the Sept. 25 beheading of a woman in Oklahoma City, had posted Islamist messages on social media, including “America and Israel are wicked. Wake up Muslims!!!”; authorities are saying there is no link to terrorism.
