While many people are small-balling president Obama's speech last night, Talking Points is taking a broader view. 

On this 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attack, our thoughts are with the people who lost loved ones.  But we are also focusing on preventing another terror attack.

The president's speech last night was okay.  He says he'll finally confront the ISIS threat.

Good, I hope the U.S.A. can destroy these killers.

But the question is, does the Obama administration really understand what's happening in the world?

Debatable.

Listen to former White House spokesman Jay Carney, now working at CNN:

JAY CARNEY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY:  “I think the United States and a lot of the world was stunned by the rapidity with which ISIS was able to move into Iraq and take territory, and the subsequent brutality that they've demonstrated.”

But many were not stunned by the ISIS ascent.

I knew about it, and many other Americans in the media and government saw the dramatic rise of Muslim terrorism inside Syria and across the Middle East.

So when Mr. Carney says everybody was surprised, that's not true.

You may remember a couple of years ago there was intense debate over whether to arm so-called moderate Muslim rebels in Syria.

They would fight not only against the tyrant Assad, but also against al Qaeda and ISIS, who were embedded in Syria.

But President Obama said no, claiming he didn't know enough about the moderate rebels.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ): “Come on, Jay, we knew all about them then. You just didn't choose to know. I was there in Syria. We knew them. Come on, you guys were the ones – it’s your boss is the one that when the entire national security team wanted to arm and train them that he turned them down, Mr. Carney after –“

JAY CARNEY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: “Well, Senator,”

MCCAIN: “So the fact is, the fact is –“

CARNEY: “I think we have to agree to disagree on this.”

MCCAIN: “No, facts are stubborn things, Mr. Carney, and that is his entire national security team, including the secretary of state said we want to arm and train and equip these people and he made the unilateral decision to turn them down. And the fact he didn't leave a residual force in Iraq, overruling all of his military advisers, is the reason why we're facing ISIS today.”

Of course the "he" Senator McCain is talking about is President Obama.

Talking Points can state with certainty that there is deep anger within the U.S. intelligence community because President Obama was indeed warned about ISIS.

He was advised explicitly that withdrawing all troops from Iraq would cause chaos.

And now look what we have.

So again the question is, does the Obama administration know what's really going on?

The next few months might tell the tale on that.

If the terrorism situation gets worse, the president's legacy is doomed.

And that's the memo.