Speaking in a measured tone, Obama said the US would intensify its campaign of airstrikes and arming and training moderate forces. The fact is that we have been able to stop that geographic advance and take back significant amounts of territory in both northern Iraq and northern Syria. This concept – while incredibly hard to execute – is now a cornerstone of the anti-ISIS strategy. Officials said the death toll has risen to 132 with at least 352 people injured, many of them seriously.
Advertisement
“I’m not aware of anything that was specific”, he said. Egypt is facing a balance of payments crisis and is reeling from its own terror attacks, while Iraq is struggling to cope with a slump in oil prices and its own war. Others may include sharpening divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe – and forcing the West into a hard choice of either backing off or being drawn into what IS would see as a holy war in Syria and Iraq. Democrats, meanwhile, pointed to new challenges – with Hillary Clinton calling ISIS an “unusually effective threat” and Bernie Sanders saying climate change remains crucial to national security. Martha Raddatz tonight on the strikes, and what, if anything, the U.S. May do next.
“They said they wanted to cause havoc everywhere”, the Isis member said. Bush has also suggested that any USA assistance to refugees fleeing the Middle East should be primarily focused on Christians, another idea that rankled Obama. And those who follow the fight against terrorists say the Paris attacks showed sophistication. White House officials ruled out sending combat ground troops into Syria, and made no indication it was rethinking a no-fly-zones.
“Strategic objectives relating to the fight against the Islamic State are, in principle, very similar, but there are differences on the tactics side”, he said.
But he has stopped short of saying how many soldiers would be needed and where they would be deployed.
The suicide belts used by the attackers – a first in France – were made by a highly-skilled professional who could still be at large in Europe, intelligence and security experts say. We will not defeat it if we are afraid to call it by its name.
And the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has repeatedly warned that it is coming after us. She said she would arm the Kurds, whose Peshmerga forces took control of the Iraqi city of Sinjar from ISIS last week with the help of U.S. air support.
True to his isolationist and libertarian leanings, the Kentucky senator said that Obama’s military approach to ISIS, which is mainly airstrikes, is unconstitutional. “So let me try it one last time”.
Instead, he said, “We’ll do what is required to keep the American people safe”.
The New Jersey governor backs a National Security Agency with expanded capabilities that isn’t hindered by privacy concerns in efforts to collect intelligence.
People are understandably eager to know the likelihood of their being machine-gunned the next time they sit in a restaurant or attend a concert in Paris or London. “ISIS is not a ‘JV team, ‘ Mr. President, they are not contained, they are at our shores and they measure their victory in body count”.
Mr Obama huddled with Mr Putin during a working lunch and the two agreed on the need for a Syrian-led transition including UN-mediated talks, the White House official said.
Although he did not allude to Bush’s remarks, the president did express admiration for his brother, former President George W. Bush.
“If I were one of the leaders of the global jihadist movement and I didn’t infiltrate that group of people with my people… that would be nearly malpractice”, Carson said. “Nation building is not something for us to risk our men and women in uniform to do. Take care of business and come home”.
Graham is by far the most hawkish of the field. A few also speak of a much more aggressive military option.
Graham’s call for troops puts him in line with 62 percent of Republicans, according to a CNN/ORC poll, but narrowly at odds with the greater public – 51 percent of Americans oppose ground troops. That’s also a move that many other governors – mostly Republicans – emulated Monday.
The 2012 GOP runner-up has slammed Obama for launching what he termed a public relations war rather than a war that will lead to victory.
Advertisement
IS activity outside its “caliphate” hub in Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq is in itself not new as a concept. “I would be launching a major offensive against ISIS right now”, Santorum said in Florida Saturday. How dare you criticize the CIC during a time of war.
