CHICAGO (WLS) -- President Obama will speak to the nation Wednesday night about ISIS, but the I-Team can tell us what he plans to announce: there will be a new wave of American military action overseas.
From the White House, President Obama will announce that the U.S. military will "roll back" the Islamic State terrorist threat by using a broad coalition of nations. The president will lay out a counter-terrorism campaign that will depend on air power.
According to White House officials, Obama will differentiate this new military action from what he inherited in Iraq and Afghanistan, promising to degrade and destroy ISIS without the use of American ground forces.
The White House released a photo of President Obama and his national security team preparing for the new military action and the announcement - which is being described as a "turning point and "next phase" in the War on Terror - a war that began September 11, 2001, 13 years ago.
"I definitely want to see the United States engage in a very strong, very intense air campaign against ISIS targets where they exist, as well as working with the native forces, the Iraqi military," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois.
As Obama's new strategy takes aim at about 20,000 radical Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq, he will urge Congress to grant him the authority to provide arms to Syrian opposition forces that are fighting strongman President Bashar Assad.
That effort would expand the CIA's current role training Syrian rebels and special forces training the Iraqi military.
"It will not just be reserved to bombs, it will be comprehensive with Iraqi forces on the ground in Iraq," said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry already is in Baghdad Wednesday, greasing the diplomatic wheels.
"It has to be something that is clearly defined and something that has a real chance of succeeding and not just rhetoric. It's gotta be action," said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Indiana.
A peace rally was held Wednesday night in the South Loop urging the U.S. to back off.
"It's violence causing yet more violence causing yet more terrorism, has got a long and sordid history in the Middle East," said Andy Thayer, peace activist.
Obama is expected to tell the American people that this counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out Islamic terrorists wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground.