U.S. military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country necessary.
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The president’s remarks came four days after a husband and wife stormed into a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, spraying the room with bullets from their semiautomatic weapons in a rampage that left 14 dead and 21 wounded.
The White House is also planning to meet with major Silicon Valley companies to see how best to restrict the use of social media for promoting or planning violence.
Finally, he said the U.S.is working with allies, such as Britain and Germany who have begun bombing targets in Syria. The president said he wants to continue airstrikes in places like Iraq and Syria and deploy US special forces.
Mr Obama repeated his long-standing opposition to an American-led ground war in the Middle East and made no mention of the more aggressive action others have suggested, including a enforcing a no-fly zone and safe corridors in Syria.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio said Obama shouldn’t have criticized Americans for discriminating against Muslims.
Obama said the attack in San Bernardino on Wednesday by a young couple with no known terrorist links highlighted the challenge of battling an extremist group that uses the Internet to lure people down “the dark path of radicalization”.
Obama is calling the Islamic State “thugs, killers” and a “cult of death”. He said that they represent a tiny fraction of the Muslim community.
At the same time, he asked Americans not to turn against Muslim friends and neighbours and turn the conflict with ISIS into a war against Islam.
But Obama also warned against discrimination or security or proposals that treat Muslim-Americans differently, warning that would play into the hands of IS.
Republican presidential candidates roundly criticized President Barack Obama’s Sunday night address to the nation about the USA response to the threat of terror, arguing that he lacked a vision and was not aggressive enough. He reiterated to stop these individuals from getting guns is a matter of national security.
Obama used the opportunity to renew a call for tougher gun control measures. Gun rights advocates say such a ban would violate the rights of people who haven’t been convicted of crimes.
On Sunday, December 6, President Obama reassured Americans that the country is equipped to handle the threat of terrorism.
“We have to remember that”, he said.
Before the speech, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said on “Meet the Press” that the president was expected to urge Americans “not to give in to fear”.
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Obama said that investigators do not believe the killers “were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home”.
