After dancing around the question, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest begrudgingly says Obama wants to see ISIS defeated, but not now.

ACOSTA: Is the president’s strategy to defeat ISIL – to defeat ISIS?

EARNEST: First and foremost, Jim, the president’s strategy is to protect Americans who are in harm’s way . . . principally the president’s focused  on protecting the national security of the United States of America, and in this case, protecting American personnel that are harms way

ACOSTA: If ISIS is a cancer (as Obama called it Tuesday), does he want to defeat it?

EARNEST: Well . . .  of course, Jim. But the goal of this action, and what the president is focused on, as we pursue this strategy . . . is safeguarding the American people and putting the foreign policy interests of the United State first and foremost.