On Sunday, during a rare Oval Office address to the nation, President Obama tried to reassure Americans on his anti-Islamic State policies in the aftermath of the San Bernardino massacre.
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Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement tonight on President Obama’s address on the threat of terrorism:”President Obama’s address tonight failed to obscure what has become increasingly clear to the American people: that we are not winning the war against ISIL, and that the threat of terrorism against our homeland is real and growing”.
In the final part of his address, Obama called upon Americans not to turn to one another and not to define this war as a battle between America and Islam.
“Since the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, the United States, along with our partners in the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, have intensified our efforts to degrade and destroy ISIL in Iraq and Syria”, a White House official said, using another acronym for the terrorist group.
The president also urged the nation to stand in unity with Muslim Americans, who in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings – which were praised by ISIS – have faced extreme backlash for their religion.
Anyone who was expecting sabre-rattling or a stepped-up military approach to recent terrorist acts didn’t get much satisfaction from President Obama Sunday night. “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”, president Obama said.
The FBI can’t prevent domestic terrorism unless Muslim Americans, knowing they are welcome in their own country, pitch in to help. “To begin with, Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun”.
“An extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities”. That’s what groups like ISIL are hoping for. Gauging the enormity of the problem, the world seems to be coming together to tackle the threat from the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
“Just as it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization, it is the responsibility of all Americans, of every faith, to reject discrimination”. For instance, the woman in San Bernardino who’s responsible for 14 of these murders was let into the country on a so-called fiancee visa.
He says the US can and must make it harder for would-be mass shooters to kill by making it harder for them to obtain guns. “It’s part of a series of tools that have kept us safe and it’s an essential part of the national security of our country”, Bush argued.
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Other Republicans echoed those comments, saying that Obama’s strategy – air strikes against Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria, and training local ground forces – is inadequate to the threat.
