A CNN/ORC poll, released before his Sunday-night address, said that 60 per cent of Americans surveyed disapproved of the president’s response to terrorism and that an even greater number, 68 per cent, believed the campaign against Islamic State had not been aggressive enough. A tired Barack Obama counselled Americans to reject the corrosive rhetoric some of his political peers have employed, warning against “letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam”. The New York Times noted over the weekend that Republican candidates have been almost hysterical about what they see as World War III, but “for all the heated expressions from Republicans, there emerged no real detailed consensus among them about how to destroy the Islamic State or stop it from inspiring future adherents in the United States”.
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The president made it clear he does not support sending large numbers of USA troops to Syria to fight ISIS.
Obama says Muslims can send credible, effective counter messages and undermine jihadist propaganda.
Donald Trump played right into the terrorists’ hands with his ridiculous call Monday for a “complete and total shutdown” on Muslims entering the U.S.
Obama said that the goal of ISIS was to provoke a battle between the United States and the Muslim world. “ISIL does not speak for Islam”, he said. He is cautioning Americans not to single out Muslims.
But people who get radicalized tend to go to mosques or be involved in their communities, which makes them harder to spot, he said.
Four days after 14 people were killed in California in an attack-the president finally used the “T” word: Terrorism. “What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terror suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?” he said. Still, 28 percent said they had an unfavorable view of ISIS, and just nine percent said they had a favorable view.
Obama has urged stricter gun laws following the California shootings, but like previous mass shootings, those calls have met resistance from gun control opponents. The first is how many people have been put on the no-fly list by mistake.
Now that Obama has gotten on the same page with pretty much every other American citizen, everyone can agree that terrorists are probably not going to change their minds. “Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our co-workers, our sports heroes, and yes, the men and women in uniform who are willing to die in the defense of our country”. “So this was an act of terrorism, created to kill innocent people”, Obama said. But Obama says there’s no evidence the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas. The U.S.is at war.
For only the third time in his presidency, Obama delivered his remarks from the Oval Office.
Magid said attacks in Paris and California have taken a toll on his community in Sterling, Virginia.
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He spoke at an address to the public from Oval Office, where he explained the steps his government will take to prevent a similar attack happening in future.
