--- title: Obama: Fight Against ISIS a 'Long-Term Campaign' description: The president spoke at the Pentagon on developments in the fight against the terrorist organization canonical: https://time.com/3947183/obama-isil-long-term/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-06T21:06:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:00:03.560Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama: Fight Against ISIS a 'Long-Term Campaign' og:description: The president spoke at the Pentagon on combating the terrorist organization og:url: https://time.com/3947183/obama-isil-long-term/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc04f314e688cc902/698859c3cd1bba439a6fc24f/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3389 og:image:height: 1906 og:image:alt: US-SYRIA-IRAQ-CONFLICT-MILITARY-OBAMA-CAMPAIGN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama: Fight Against ISIS a 'Long-Term Campaign' twitter:description: The president spoke at the Pentagon on combating the terrorist organization twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc04f314e688cc902/698859c3cd1bba439a6fc24f/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama: Fight Against ISIS a 'Long-Term Campaign' > Sponsored content. 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It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=58db157b-6f76-4791-90e7-0b55aa6a6aa8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Monday to Saturday (3x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Subscribers | 85,000 | TIME, August 2026 | | Open rate | 37.0% | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Philip Elliott, Senior Correspondent | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership The policy influence ecosystem. A policy-focused audience spanning government, public affairs, advocacy, law, research, political media, and the institutions that make, interpret and respond to public policy. ### TIME D.C. Brief: key statements * D.C. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 6, 2015 9:06 PM UTC  US President Barack Obama speaks following a meeting with top military officials about the military campaign against the Islamic State at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, July 6, 2015. US President Barack Obama speaks following a meeting with top military officials about the military campaign against the Islamic State at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, July 6, 2015.SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 6, 2015 9:06 PM UTC President Obama’s efforts to take down the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria may have ramped up in recent months, but they are far from over. “This will not be quick. This is a long-term campaign. ISIL is opportunistic and it is nimble,” he said at the Pentagon on Monday, using an alternative acronym for the Islamist group. Obama said the U.S.-led coalition has now hit ISIS with more than 5,000 airstrikes, taking out thousands of fighters — including senior commanders. Victories can already be counted: the terrorist group has now lost more than a quarter of the territory it had previously held in Iraq. Nevertheless, he said, no amount of military force will be enough to defeat ISIS. To stem the flow of foreign fighters to ISIS’s ranks, he said, we need to combat its ideology. “Ideologies are not defeated with guns, they’re defeated by better ideas, a more attractive and compelling vision,” he said. While Obama maintained the U.S. should not target any single religious or ethnic community, he pointed out that the group has been particularly effective at recruiting “vulnerable” Muslims around the world and called on that community “to step up in terms of pushing back as hard as they can” against extremist ideologies. Obama argued that for the campaign to succeed in the long term, the coalition would have to help train local security forces to maintain order in the Middle East, noting that ISIS has filled a void in the communities where it’s gained ground, and “we have to make sure that as we push them out, that void is filled.” “If we try to do everything ourselves all across the Middle East, all across North Africa,” he said, “we’ll be playing Whac-A-Mole.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3947183/obama-isil-long-term/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3947183/obama-isil-long-term/"},"headline":"Obama: Fight Against ISIS a 'Long-Term Campaign'","datePublished":"2015-07-06T21:06:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:00:03.560Z","description":"The president spoke at the Pentagon on the fight against the terrorist organization","url":"https://time.com/3947183/obama-isil-long-term/","keywords":["Foreign Policy","Obama","ISIL"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc04f314e688cc902/698859c3cd1bba439a6fc24f/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc04f314e688cc902/698859c3cd1bba439a6fc24f/obama.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-SYRIA-IRAQ-CONFLICT-MILITARY-OBAMA-CAMPAIGN","caption":"US-SYRIA-IRAQ-CONFLICT-MILITARY-OBAMA-CAMPAIGN","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3947183/obama-isil-long-term/","name":"Obama: Fight Against ISIS a 'Long-Term Campaign'"}}]}] ```