Carter’s pitch to lawmakers came a few days after Obama delivered a prime time address looking to reassure Americans that his plan for ISIS is working. We must keep perspective here and not make the same mistakes as the Bush administration and launch a full out war. Each of them a public servant. Americans are exhausted of hearing platitudes and getting lectured by Obama and other Democrats about how they are the problem.
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The FBI is still gathering the facts about what happened in San Bernardino, but here is what we know. And we may legitimately wonder, where will they strike next?
Obama was correct when he said Sunday this is a war against radical Islam, not against Islam itself. Calling the group Daesh implies that it is neither a real government nor a true representation of Islamic thought. That process actually began two months prior to the election, when the State Department and Pentagon got caught with its trousers down in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11. Our military and counter-terrorism professionals have relentlessly pursued terrorist networks overseas – disrupting safe havens, killing Osama bin Laden, and decimating al Qaeda’s leadership.
Terrorist groups or their supporters have adopted a method of mass murder that is frighteningly common here. For the past seven years, I have confronted the evolution of this threat each morning.
It might have been nice if Americans had taken national security more seriously in November 2008 and November 2012, but you go to the polls with the electorate you have, I guess. Now that we have the ability to learn from past decisions, I hope that this country can take reasonable steps to eliminate ISIS the right way.
Facing questions about his leadership and strategy, Obama harnessed the highest trappings of USA power to calm a country rattled by a rampage in California that killed 14 people.
Obama has undertaken military action against ISIS for over a year and only wants to continue his failed policies that are the reason we fight against the very weapons USA taxpayers bought.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom have also ramped up their participation in the airstrikes, Mr. Obama said.
“There is no meaningful official reporting on the progress in creating effective Iraqi government forces, the strengths and weaknesses of the Iraqi Army to date, the success or failure of efforts to create Arab Sunni forces, and the strengths and weaknesses of Iraqi Kurdish forces”, wrote Anthony Cordesman, the strategy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in an essay released on Thursday.
“It’s a huge decision if you’re going to deploy any forces in any way”.
Ending the Syrian civil war through diplomacy isn’t pie in the sky. A US official who spoke to CNN, however, disagreed with that assessment, saying, “they have made some progress, but not that much”. We are bombing ISIS in Syria while Russian Federation sometimes bombs them but also attacks the rebels we are supporting. “I’m not making that up”. “What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?” he said. We can not act as if the world is at peace because it never truly is. What we can do, and must do, is make it harder for them to kill.
This is what we should do.
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Committee Chairman John McCain, an Arizona Republican, shot back: “I must say, it’s one of the more embarrassing statements I’ve ever heard from a uniformed military officer, that we are anxious about Syria and Russia’s reaction to saving the lives of thousands and thousands of Syrians who are being barrel-bombed and massacred”.
