There were no new policy prescriptions, no fresh military strategies and no timelines.
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Since the president addressed the nation, I’ve been reading e-mails and hearing from some of my constituents who believe that this president’s response was tone-deaf.
While Obama has spoken frequently about the Islamic State in recent news conferences and other events, the decision to speak in prime-time reflected concern among his advisers that his message isn’t breaking through. “Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless”.
Every 100 Americans have 112 units of weapons, regardless of their age.
Woven throughout Obama’s address was a plea for unity.
The president made a similar plea in Sunday’s Oval Office address on counterterrorism efforts.
The White House has acknowledged the error. Terrorists do not care about climate change. It took the president four days to respond and finally admit what most Americans already knew – it was a terrorist attack.
Another Islamic terrorist act! Before this week, only 16 Americans had been killed on home soil by Islamist terrorists in the past 14 years (13 soldiers killed by US Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009, and three killed at the Boston Marathon in 2013). Muslim leaders here and around the globe have to continue working with us to decisively and unequivocally reject the hateful ideology that groups like ISIL and al Qaeda promote; to speak out against not just acts of violence, but also those interpretations of Islam that are incompatible with the values of religious tolerance, mutual respect, and human dignity.
But the very words that Obama preached yesterday about loving our fellow Americans and recognizing Muslims’ humanity is exactly what I needed to hear when I saw Ferguson and Baltimore become torn apart by protests and vandals.
Obama’s speech was likely to leave his critics unsatisfied.
President Barack Obama says the USA and its allies are stepping up the fight against the Islamic State group.
“Our vulnerability is the visa-waiver program”, Warner said. But he did not call for legislation to curb the use of encryption, a tool some law enforcement authorities have long sought.
In his Sunday night speech, the president laid out his strategy for defeating the group, as well as a call for Congress to authorize the use of force against the group while linking people who appear on the no-fly terrorist list with gun purchase restrictions.
Obama said that while there was no evidence 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”.
Obama wants to ban individuals on the “no-fly list” from purchasing a firearm. Gun-rights advocates say that violates the rights of people who haven’t been convicted of a crime. NPR recently summarized five other times he’s said as much during his presidency.
Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush were not impressed with the speech. “This is not a time for ideological silliness, this is a time for serious action because the future security of our country is at stake”.
More than that, the act was directly inspired by the Islamic State (formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS).
He called on Muslims to confront “without excuse” what he called the “real problem” of extremist ideology spreading within some of their communities.
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The goal of his address was to reassure American citizens that while terrorism is most definitely a threat, it is not insurmountable.
