President Barack Obama gave a short address to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday night.
Advertisement
“We need to remove the self-imposed constraints President Obama has placed on our intelligence community and military, and we need to put in place an aggressive strategy to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism as I have proposed”.
“The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it”, Obama said.
“Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values, or giving into fear – that’s what groups like ISIL are hoping for”, he said.
At the same time, he asserted that it is the responsibility of the leaders of the Muslim community, both inside the USA and globally, to come out strongly and openly against terrorist groups like the ISIL.
Obama said the country is also training tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces who are fighting ISIS on the ground and that the USA will be deploying Special Operations forces in Syria.
So he said a meeting of the sides could be fruitful, though he said it would be best if civil liberties groups could participate, too. The White House said Monday, the U.S.is working with tech companies to take encryption out of the terrorist toolbox.
“I don’t think he was completely forthright in noting that despite a withering air campaign that the Islamic State continues to hold big chunks in Iraq – including in Anbar province – and in Syria, in Raqqa, they’ve expanded into Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other locations – about a dozen places”.
But the president’s critics said there was nothing new in his speech, except maybe his tying in gun control.
Trump live-tweeted during Obama’ speech – and wasn’t impressed with the brevity of the president’s 13-minute address. And he called on the legislature to vote for the authorisation for use of force in the war against the Islamic State. Hours before he spoke, Hillary Clinton – his former secretary of state and the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination – said the U.S.is “not winning” the fight against IS.
President Barack Obama addressed the nation Sunday night, a rare but necessary move sparked by the growing tensions in the aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting.
Daniel Hummel, a Muslim American in Pocatello, was happy to hear President Obama’s words about Muslims.
Much like the threat the USA faces, the president’s own strategy to deal with Islamic State has evolved. He’s proposed specific changes in the visa waiver program, and he’s also floated a measure that would prohibit anyone on the “no-fly” terrorist watch list from purchasing a firearm – a measure already rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate.
As for some GOP calls for American ground forces, Obama repeated that he does not want to see the United States bogged down in another Middle East war.
Advertisement
Yet, so many of his foreign and domestic policies and those of his predecessor, George W. Bush, have been facilitated by fear mongering, and have led to the abandonment of our cherished rights of privacy, freedom from illegal search and seizure, due process of law and gun ownership for self-defense.
