“We can not succumb to fear”, Obama said, standing alongside French President Francois Hollande after they met at the White House.
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Bush and other Republicans have been critical of Obama’s emphasis on curtailing man-made climate change amid the risk of terror attacks like the November 13 massacre in Paris, which left at least 130 people dead and was linked to the Islamic State jihadist group (also known as ISIS).
Without any major new commitments to announce alongside Hollande, Obama instead touted a new intelligence sharing agreement announced last week that has helped France target ISIS sites in Raqqa, Syria.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday used the downing of a Russian warplane as evidence to support the view of the global community that the Kremlin get with the program in the fight against the Islamic State.
In his first comments since the plane went down, Obama also called on Russian Federation to redirect its military efforts in Syria toward territory held by Islamic State extremists rather than attacking rebel-held positions near the Turkish border in a bid to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The president’s strong language yesterday came on the heels of a renewed travel alert, which warned USA travelers of “possible risks of travel due to increased terrorist threats”.
“In that stadium, concert hall, restaurants and cafes we see our own”, Obama said.
The White House signaled Monday that it already believes US contributions to the anti-ISIS effort are sufficient.
France, said the American president, “stood alongside” the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001, ignoring all periods of friction between the two allies, particularly during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that France had strongly opposed. “He said “I’m going to be” – essentially – ‘going back to Europe and getting the Europeans to step up and do more.’ It’s not that we haven’t been doing a lot”.
Finally, his final line was “Nous sommes tous Francais”, (“We are all French”) making a reference to the French newspaper headlines after the 9/11 attacks, “Nous sommes tous Americans”.
Military advisers have told him that ground troops “would be a blunder”, Obama said during a news conference in Turkey, the website of the G-20 summit.
In an hour-long joint press conference on Tuesday, Mr Obama said: “The US and france stand united in total solidarity, to deliver justice…and defend our nations”.
“I don’t think the approach is sufficient to the job”, Feinstein said on CBS’ “Face the Nation”.
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“Together with President Obama we want to share our relentless determination to fight terrorism anywhere and everywhere”, Hollande said. The issue is likely to be discussed during Hollande’s meeting with Putin, who has, so far, not backed down from his stated support for the Assad regime.
