David Ignatius, "The ‘slows’ of Obama’s Islamic State strategy": A Contradiction in Terms

In a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "The ‘slows’ of Obama’s Islamic State strategy," Obama cheerleader David Ignatius writes:

"The administration is moving cautiously to fulfill President Obama’s promise to 'degrade and destroy' the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Yes, Obama does seem to have a strategy, and it gets pretty good marks from allies abroad. But many components aren’t ready yet, and some aren’t fully conceptualized."

Query: How can the administration be "moving cautiously to fulfill President Obama’s promise to 'degrade and destroy' the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria," if "many components aren’t ready yet, and some aren’t fully conceptualized"? This is pure rubbish.

Moreover, Obama is simultaneously saying that he wants to make the Islamic State a "manageable problem." How do you make sense of these two contradictory declarations, i.e. "destroying" the Islamic State and making it into a "manageable problem"?

Ignatius also remarkably would have us know:

"Phase two of the administration’s strategy is gathering allies in the region to encourage Sunni Muslims in Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State. The three key partners so far have been Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates."

However, as observed by  as observed in a recent Daily Beast article by Josh Rogin entitled "America's Allies Are Funding ISIS" (my emphasis in red):

"But in the years they were getting started, a key component of ISIS’s support came from wealthy individuals in the Arab Gulf States of Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Sometimes the support came with the tacit nod of approval from those regimes; often, it took advantage of poor money laundering protections in those states, according to officials, experts, and leaders of the Syrian opposition, which is fighting ISIS as well as the regime."

Saudi Arabia is going to help the United States fight the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL? What is Ignatius smoking?