( CNN ) -- Many of us are tempted to look backward and replay the myriad mistakes President Barack Obama has made in managing the now extraordinarily obvious crisis in the Middle East . I 've done it , plenty of my fellow analysts do it , and now Obama 's own Democratic Party members are doing it too . But sunk costs are irrelevant ; the president 's mistakes are made . The better question is , what does he plan to do now ? The President will take to the airwaves on Wednesday to announce to the nation his strategy to confront the growing threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria , variously known as IS , ISIS and ISIL . So let 's start by saying : Good . Obama has evolved from suggesting ISIS is a minor league terrorist team , to suggesting we have no strategy in place to combat this rising terrorist group . And now ? Any strategy embraced by the Obama administration must begin and end with an understanding of the nature of the threat at hand . Too many have reduced the challenge to ISIS alone , failing to understand that the group is merely a more venomous outgrowth of a cancer now sweeping across the Muslim world , from South to East Asia , from Africa to the Middle East . Al Qaeda , its sworn affiliates , wannabes and groups such as ISIS are taking territory as never before . We are rightly paying attention to the brutal beheading of two Americans . But we can not ignore the forest for the trees . First , ISIS itself now occupies a swath of territory across both Syria and Iraq , and so the notion of a military strategy that hits Iraq without Syria , helps Kurds without Sunnis , or rescues Yazidis without Muslims is mindless . To cripple ISIS , the group must be targeted in Iraq and Syria -- everywhere that it holds land . Second , we will need allies , and those allies will need support from the United States , both on the ground in the form of special operations forces and advisers , and from the air . They will need weapons , now . We can continue to parse the many faults of these groups -- the Kurds , the Iraqi armed forces , the Free Syrian Army and Sunni tribes -- and simply go and fight ourselves . We are better ; we are more trustworthy ; we will win . But do we want to fight , or do we wish to empower locals on the ground to fight ? It seems an easy choice . Third , we need to crush the Qatari lifeline to Muslim extremists of all stripes , highlighted just last week in The New York Times . The Saudis know it and the Emiratis know it . Indeed , everyone but the United States ( and perhaps those in the pay of Qatar ) seems well aware that the tiny tyranny has effectively been waging war on the moderates of the Middle East for years . Like their alleged clients in ISIS and Hamas , the Qataris are small , but nastier when unopposed . It 's time to oppose them , and to unite the Arab League in so doing . Fourth , we need to kill ISIS ' leaders . Yes , it 's true , Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the fourth leader of what was once al Qaeda in Iraq . When he dies , another will rise in his place . So what ? Killing terrorist leaders is not a strategy to defeat terrorism , but it is a useful tactic to slow down momentum , reduce recruiting appeal and otherwise warn the group that it is in our sights . Throughout the Middle East , many are wondering why it is that U.S. drones target terrorist leaders from Somalia to Yemen to Pakistan , but both Iraq and Syria are no-fly zones for American terrorist-killers . Good question . Fifth , we need to remember that ISIS may not technically be part of al Qaeda , but it is part of a larger movement that encompasses al Qaeda . As the American Enterprise Institute 's Katherine Zimmerman points out , if ISIS is defeated , `` al Qaeda is right on its heels and would be happy to fill in any vacancies left by ISIS in Iraq and Syria . '' Finally , we must remember -- and that goes double for this President of the United States -- that a strategy to defeat ISIS and all those like it can not be part of the usual hide-the-ball game to get bad news off the front pages and then forget about the problem . This has n't worked well in Syria , Iraq , Libya , Ukraine or anywhere else . Any strategy will require sustained commitment and a willingness to speak to the American people about the threat more than a few times a year . These are some of the elements of a strategy to begin to `` degrade '' and `` destroy '' ISIS , as Obama has said he plans to do . But it wo n't just be Americans who are listening for them when Obama speaks on Wednesday . The entire world , but most particularly our enemies , will be looking to see not just strategy , but determination and commitment . Over to you , Mr. President .
President Obama is right to see ISIS as a serious threat , says Danielle Pletka . Any attempt to tackle ISIS must start by fully understanding the threat , she says . We will need allies , and those allies will need support from U.S. , Pletka argues . Pletka : Any strategy will require sustained commitment .