On Wednesday, President Barack Obama outlined the elements of a strategy to confront Islamic State (IS) that he hopes to build on the fly in the coming months.
While it's better than not having a strategy at all, what Mr Obama described is not likely to achieve the objective he identified, even if everything works as he hopes.
Mr Obama detailed a "comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy" for a broad regional and international coalition to "degrade and ultimately destroy" IS.