He also addressed the backlash in the United States against accepting Syrian refugees after it was widely reported that one of the Paris attackers may have entered France among a group of refugees.
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Williams: Boots on the ground versus air strikes? It was the latest in a series of attacks by the terrorist group in locations that include Denmark, Tunisia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey and Egypt. ISIL also claimed credit for a bombing that downed a Russian airliner in the Sinai.
ABC News reports that the two presidents first had a private meeting in the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., after which a press conference was held in the East Room of the White House.
“Francois, with your understanding, my statement today will be a little longer than usual”. Allies in Congress and former aides from inside the Obama administration worry the president has misread Americans’ fears of a repeat of what happened in Paris on American soil.
President Barack Obama’s handle on the threat of terrorism was once a strong point in his presidency – but the recent poll suggests approval of how he is handling the situation has dropped to an all-time low of 36 percent.
For example, over Christmas 2009, he struggled to keep up with rapidly evolving news coverage after an al Qaeda operative attempted to bring down a USA airliner over Detroit, possibly because he was thousands of miles away from the political tumult enjoying his annual vacation in his native Hawaii. So far, Obama is resisting calls to significantly escalate his approach, and instead is focused on getting other countries to offer more counterintelligence, humanitarian and military assistance. And his overall approval rating has dipped back to 45%, down from 51% in October. Hours later, ISIS killed some 130-plus people. The United States and France, Obama said, will work closely together with like-minded nations to counter the terrorist group.
While stressing its cautious approach, the White House sought to demonstrate to Hollande that the U.S.is committed to accelerating its efforts to defeat ISIS.
As Obama spoke in the Malaysian capital, other Western leaders were stepping up their rhetoric against IS, while the European diplomatic hub of Brussels remained under the highest threat level for the second day in a row.
“This is who we want to help”, Obama said. They see us as the problem, not the solution. “They are a bunch of killers with good social media”.
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President Barack Obama ruled out dispatching a major U.S. ground force against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, saying it would be a “serious mistake” that would lead the nation into an unsustainable strategy requiring a long-term occupation in the region.
