Making decisions to degrade and destroy a terrorist group like the Islamic State is not for amateurs.
Until Wednesday night, that's what the Obama White House had appeared to be doing in its dithering, bloviating and minimizing of a threat that has gobbled up swaths of Syria and Iraq, killed thousands of innocent people and beheaded two American journalists.
Only nine months ago, the terrorist group had been characterized by the president as "JV" (junior varsity). And just two weeks ago, he said he had no strategy for defeating the militants in Syria.
On Wednesday night, however, Obama laid out plans for what he called a counterterrorism operation against the Islamic State, including an intensification of airstrikes in Iraq, 475 more military advisers in Iraq, humanitarian aid for displaced Iraqis, arms for Syrian rebels and a likelihood of expanded airstrikes in Syria.
What it won't be, he said, is anything similar to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and "will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil."
Fair enough.
Americans, many of whom can tell you what celebrities recently had nude photos released but not what the Islamic State is, don't want -- let's all recite it together -- "boots on the ground."
So, those in this country who understand that terrorist groups are not interested just in the Middle East but in the United States as well, must pin their hopes on a president who, following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, naively wrote that "most often" such attacks grow "out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair" and that, more than any military action, "we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe."
We want to believe that Obama, given the best advice of his military advisers and those on the ground in the countries, has put forward a solid plan.
We also want to hope the president -- who preferred his party go it alone on something as mammoth as the Affordable Care Act -- will consult Congress throughout the operation as he did earlier this week in explaining his plans to Senate and House leaders.
Although the Islamic State appears to be better organized and better financed than other terrorist groups, Middle East experts say it's not invulnerable.
Most estimates put the number of Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq at about 20,000, but a senior Iraqi intelligence official said more than 27,600 -- including 2,600 foreigners -- are believed to be operating in Iraq, according to The Washington Times.
The group purportedly has the ability to shoot down small planes, launch mortar attacks, mount ground assaults and knows U.S. air and special operations doctrine, but doesn't have the major weaponry of an established military and lacks the means to fight airpower.
But its numbers are known to be loyal, aggressive through social media, able to capitalize on the divisions among its rivals and able to recruit widely.
Those who oppose the Islamic State -- without American boots on the ground -- include an Iraqi military and police force of more than 1 million, a Syrian army of 300,000, 100,000 Syrian rebels and tens of thousands of Kurdish peshmerga forces.
It's getting those groups to coordinate, even with U.S. assistance, that is the problem, as Obama is well aware.
But we want to believe in what he now says is his "core" principle: "If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven."
So, going forward, those who support Obama and those who oppose him on other issues, should be united in the desire that his strategy will halt the Islamic State's funding sources, infiltrate its recruitment, prevent any of its members from entering this country through our porous southern border and will help rid the Middle East and the wider world of this scourge.
And since he made the declaration, we implore him to heed former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's advice to former President George H.W. Bush on Iraq in 1990: "This is no time to go wobbly."