Before getting on a flight Tuesday to New York City, where he was expected to speak about climate change, President Obama addressed the airstrikes that the U.S. launched Monday night against the Islamic State in Syria. (AP)

Before getting on a flight Tuesday to New York City, where he was expected to speak about climate change, President Obama addressed the airstrikes that the U.S. launched Monday night against the Islamic State in Syria. (AP)

Striding onto the South Lawn on a cool, sunny Washington morning, President Obama stepped to a lectern hastily set up in front of Marine One and took all of three minutes to announce that a new war in Syria had begun. Then he boarded the helicopter on his way to New York for a global summit.

Rhetorical shock and awe, this was not.

Before departing, Obama dryly read off a list of actions taken to expand the campaign against radical Sunni militants to include Syria in addition to Iraq. U.S. warplanes had struck, for the first time, Islamic State targets in that country. His administration had done so in partnership with five Arab nations. And the Pentagon had, for good measure, attacked a separate al-Qaeda affiliate to disrupt an alleged terrorist plot against the West.

There was no mention of the word “war” and little of the rally-around-the-flag language one might expect from a commander-in-chief launching the broadest U.S. airstrikes since the Iraq war 11 years ago. Just a warning from Obama that success could come slowly.

“The overall effort will take time,” Obama said in his 531-word address. “There will be challenges ahead. But we’re going to do what’s necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group, for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world.”

The U.S., along with Arab allies, carried out a series of attacks Tuesday on the Islamic State in Syria. Video posted to social media purports to show the aftermath of those airstrikes. (The Washington Post)

Even as he has led the country back into armed conflict in the Middle East, Obama has been careful to employ measured tones about the extent of American engagement and to manage expectations about the duration of the fight.

He has sought to be resolute but not reckless, forceful if not fearsome — none of the “with us or against us” declarations of predecessor George W. Bush.

The president and his aides have, over the years, described his foreign policy as “leading from behind,” being sure not to do “stupid stuff,” and hitting singles and doubles rather than swinging for the fences.

Now Obama has had to sell the American public, and a worldwide audience, on a broader war the Nobel Peace Prize recipient never imagined he would pursue. And he has seemed to do so reluctantly, emphasizing more clearly what the United States will not do — such as put combat troops on the ground — than what it will do.

The balancing act has yielded little political benefit so far. Polls show that a solid majority of Americans believe the Islamic State terrorist group represents a threat to vital U.S. interests and back airstrikes against the militants in both Iraq and Syria. Yet the president’s approval ratings on his handling of foreign affairs hover near all-time lows, with respondents saying Obama has been too cautious about intervening.

After his remarks on the South Lawn, Obama, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, flew to New York for a three-day appearance at the U.N. General Assembly — another chance, aides said, for the president to demonstrate his approach to American leadership in an increasingly unsettled world.

With Russia’s Vladi­mir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping absent, Obama will seek to reaffirm the primacy of the United States on the world stage. In a series of speeches leading up to his appearance here, he said the United States would act to protect its interests and keep its people safe, but not without international support.

“When the world is threatened, when the world needs help, it calls on America,” Obama told 1,300 U.S. troops at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa last week. “Even the countries that complain about America — when they need help, who do they call? They call us.”

The administration had been criticized ahead of the airstrikes in Syria for failing to bring together a broad coalition to participate in the military campaign. Until Monday night, only France had publicly signaled that it would fly its warplanes alongside the United States, and only in Iraq.

But the first reports emerged of the strikes late Monday included the news that five Arab countries had participated with their own air power: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Jordan. It was a coup for an administration that had worked patiently and secretly amid the criticism to build the alliances.

“It’s a very important moment for the president to put everything that we’re doing in the context of U.S. leadership in the world,” deputy national security adviser Benjamin Rhodes told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We are leading a coalition of countries against [the Islamic State]. We are leading an effort to combat the outbreak of Ebola. We are leading an effort to impose costs on Russia and to support the Ukrainian people.”

The president did not directly mention the campaign against the Islamic State group in his first two stops in New York — a plenary speech on climate change at the U.N. and remarks on civil society at the Clinton Global Initiative.

But Obama did not intend to let the day pass without a little symbolism. The presidential motorcade pulled up to the Waldorf Towers hotel, where Obama took an elevator to the 34th floor to join a meeting with Secretary of State John F. Kerry and representatives of the five Arab nations that helped in the Syrian airstrikes. Also there was new Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whom the Obama administration helped elevate after pressuring his predecessor to step down this summer.

“Because of the almost unprecedented effort of this coalition, I think we now have an opportunity to now send a very clear message that the world is united,” Obama said, sitting at a conference table with his advisers and their foreign counterparts.

As the president finished his remarks and reporters were ushered out, one reporter yelled: “Are you at ease being seen as a war president, Mr. Obama?”

The president smiled, but he did not answer.