“Even in this political season, even as we properly debate what steps I and future presidents must take to keep our country safe, let’s make sure we never forget what makes us exceptional”, he said.
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“Obama refused to say (he just can’t say it) that we are at WAR with RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS”, Trump said in a series of tweets soon after Obama delivered a rare address to the nation in which he assured Americans of defeating ISIS. “Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless”.
Barack Obama has warned Americans of a “new phase” of terror threats – days after the deadly shootings in San Bernardino.
Obama said that while there was no evidence that the shooters were directed by a terror network overseas or part of a broader plot, “the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization”. He referred to the San Bernardino shooting as “an act of terrorism created to kill innocent people”, and said the threat of terrorism has evolved.
“We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq and Syria”.
But he said the United States has been ramping up its campaign against the Islamic State over the past few weeks, with more special forces troops being dispatched to advise and assist Syrian opposition forces and Iraqi forces.
“If we’re to succeed in defeating terrorism we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate”, Obama said during his 13-minute speech in the Oval Office.
Obama also seemed to issue a call to action.
Obama specifically asked Congress to support his plan to ban anyone on the No Fly List and Terror Watch List from buying a gun.
In the speech, Obama called on Congress to bar people on the federal no-fly list, kept by the federal government’s Terrorist Screening Center, from buying guns.
“At the same time”, he said, “the people who designed these communication tools didn’t design them to aid and abet a terrorist”. That criticism has grown more fierce in recent months, as the terrorist network has initiated or inspired attacks beyond those borders -in Paris; in Beirut, Lebanon; in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt; and, perhaps, last week in the US.
“We can not turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam”, he said, facing down some of his shrillest critics who have called for a registry of Muslim-Americans. “Our military will continue to hunt down terrorists in any country necessary”. “And they account for a tiny fraction of a more than a billion Muslims around the world, including millions of patriotic Muslim-Americans who reject their hateful ideology”. And non-Muslim Americans must reject religious tests for refugees or for elective office. He notably called on Muslim leaders to confront extremist ideology “without excuse”.
“The president made clear, as his predecessor did, that it would only serve ISIL’s interest to leave people with the impression that somehow the West, the United States or the entire world is at war with Islam”. Moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are Muslim.
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Yet, so many of his foreign and domestic policies and those of his predecessor, George W. Bush, have been facilitated by fear mongering, and have led to the abandonment of our cherished rights of privacy, freedom from illegal search and seizure, due process of law and gun ownership for self-defense.
