The amazing geographical knowledge of the American government's senior officials

Wow! How do they do it?  I guess it comes from constantly sitting at round table conferences and doodling away redrawing the maps of any country on the surface of our planet.  It's like playing a game ... hold a pencil in one's hands, close your eyes, say "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" and let the pencil point hit on a country, any country. Take that country and redraw the map.  Very satisfying. This re-drawing of maps is a favorite game in the White House.

From WhiteHouseGov:
Background Conference Call on the President's Address to the Nation

.....The President will also make very clear that we will go after ISIL wherever they are, and that includes Syria.  We are dealing with an organization that operates freely across the border, so we will not be restrained by that border in our determination to conduct airstrikes against ISIL.  The President has made very clear that he will not tolerate safe havens for terrorist organizations that threaten the United States.  He will not tolerate a safe haven for ISIL in Syria. 

And so we are working very methodically with the Department of Defense to develop and advance whatever options are necessary to take targeted action against ISIL, again, wherever they are in Iraq, but also in Syria. ....

.......We had been providing military assistance to the Syrian opposition, but clearly we need to expand our efforts because the Syrian opposition is the counterweight to both ISIL and to the Assad regime.  We are not going to work with the Assad regime in going after ISIL because they have no legitimacy in the Sunni communities. .......

.........I would note that we have support from other key partners in this effort.  Today, the President spoke to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  The Saudis made very clear that they support this mission.  They will join us in this mission.  So this is not simply a U.S. effort to train and equip the Syrian opposition; we are joined by very important Arab partners as well.....

......And with that, we’d be happy to move to questions.

Q    Thank you very much.  Can you describe the dynamic of going after ISIL, or ISIS, in Syria without unintentionally at the same time helping Assad when the President said he needed to leave three years ago?  And secondly, in Iraq, Secretary Kerry was asked today about the fact that Iran is also fighting ISIL in Iraq.  And he said that there would be no cooperation or coordination with Iranian military forces.  But how is it possible to both be going after ISIL without at some point having coordination with Iranian militias?  Thank you.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks, Andrea.  I’ll say a couple words, and my colleague may want to add.  First of all, we do not think that our efforts in Syria will provide an opening to Assad because, frankly, the areas where ISIL has a stronghold in Syria would simply not accept Assad’s rule.  These are Sunni-majority areas in the eastern part of the country. 

We, frankly, believe that if ISIL was degraded in these areas, the forces that are most likely to benefit are other opposition elements, particularly the legitimate Syrian opposition who we work with.  So again, if you look at where ISIL strongholds are in Syria, these are not areas that are hotly contested for Assad to go back and essentially reestablish authority and legitimacy.  We believe they’re areas that, because they're predominantly Sunni, are more likely to benefit the opposition that we support.....

....SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I would just add, Andrea, on the question about aiding the Syrian moderate opposition in Syria to go after ISIL, the issue here is -- unlike in Iraq, where we have a government with whom we can work and a ground force that we can support and assist, we do not have a government, quite obviously, in Syria with whom we can work.  We need to bolster the Syrian moderate opposition to enable it to be able to take and hold ground, pushing out both ISIL and the Assad regime.  That is going to be essential to our strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy the organization. ......

......SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Okay, let me see if I can -- so first of all, on the last question, we are confident that there are many countries that are going to join a broader coalition through a range of actions, and that includes airstrikes; that includes training, equipping and arming Iraqi security forces and the Syrian opposition; that includes intelligence and logistical support; that includes humanitarian assistance.  And already, we’ve seen a number of key NATO Allies commit to that effort.  We believe when Secretary Kerry meets with Arab partners from around Saudi Arabia, that we’ve had strong expressions of support from not just the Arab League but nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Jordan and our closest partners in that region......

......ISIL has been I think a galvanizing threat around the Sunni partners in the region.  They view it as an existential threat to them. Saudi Arabia has an extensive border with Syria.  The Jordanians are experiencing a destabilizing impact of over a million refugees from the Syrian conflict, and are profoundly concerned that ISIL, who has stated that their ambitions are not confined to Iraq and Syria, but rather to expand to the broader region. ......