Last night, President Obama gave a statement addressing how America is going to respond to the issue of the terrorist group ISIL. He spoke with great resolution on what he considers ISIL to be, “a terrorist organization, pure and simple.” He stressed that although ISIL calls itself the “Islamic State,” it neither works under the principles of Islam, nor is it a state. The president was very clear in his message that he has every intention of seeing the complete eradication of ISIL. In order to assure Americans of this, he laid out his plan: conduct “airstrikes against these terrorists,” increase support for those who are actually fighting ISIL “on the ground,” work “to prevent [future] ISIL attacks,” and provide assistance to “innocent civilians who have been displaced by” ISIL. The president numbered each of these statements one through four, respectively, asserting that this plan has legitimate steps as part of a definite process. In other words, he emphasized the fact that he has a solid plan, and Americans need not be worried.

The president’s determination was overwhelmingly evident as he stated that the goal of his aforementioned plan is that “we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL.” In fact, he stated this twice, once in the beginning of his statement to set its tone and create an understanding of its purpose and a second time as a reminder of the purpose and a reinforcement of his conviction.  His repetition of this assertion caused it to be the truly most effective part of his statement. Those few words summed up the majority, if not all, of his message that ISIL is unsavory and must be treated as such, and it is worthless and must be eliminated. With verbs as bold as “degrade” and “destroy,” the president emphasized just how disgusted and fed-up he is with the terrorist organization, all the while giving Americans a sense that they are united in and a part of this effort through words such as “we” and “our.” In effect, the president both made clear his intention and allowed his audience to join him in his resolve.

Undeniable in the statement is evidence of Media Truth Four. Nothing is new; everything that happened in the past will happen again. The president even alludes to past events involving terrorist organizations, such as dealing with al Qaeda and eventually taking out most of its leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He addresses the unfortunate fact that evil has and always will exist, that it cannot be totally “[erased]…from the world.” ISIL, specifically, is made out to be just another terrorist organization which, as is the precedent, America will do its best to stop.