The remarks by Obama and Bush about Syrian refugees followed Friday night’s bombing and shooting attacks in Paris that killed 129 people.
Advertisement
Obama said he envisioned escalating that strategy, not overhauling it. And he called on other nations to step up their involvement in the fight against the extremists.
“When I said that we are containing their spread in Iraq and Syria – in fact, they control less territory than they did a year ago”, said Obama at the G20 on Monday.
He says Canada will concentrate its military contribution on strengthening efforts to train Kurdish fighters in their ground war against ISIL.
President Barack Obama speaks at the G-20 meeting in Turkey. “It’s not who we are”.
“That’s not American”, he said.
In a stinging rebuke, the president condemned Republicans who have suggested US assistance to refugees fleeing the Middle East should focus on Christians, not Muslims. “The more we shrink that territory, the less they can pretend they are somehow a functioning state and the more it becomes apparent that they are simply a network of brutal killers”.
“President Obama keeps referring to this in law enforcement terms”, said James Woolsey, who served under President Bill Clinton “and frankly, I think that’s ridiculous”. He added: “We do not have a religious test for people who are fleeing from persecution”. Bush said displaced Christian refugees from Syria warranted special USA protection, while he said most Syrian refugees should be kept in regional safe zones and not be brought to this country.
The president, while defending his decision to stay the course rather than alter strategy, grew angry when denouncing proposals from Republicans he did not name, who advocated denying USA entry to Syrian refugees because of suspicions they might be ISIS plotters. They are the most vulnerable as a effect of civil war and strife. “We have the right strategy, and we’re going to see it through”, Obama told reporters before heading to the Philippines and Malaysia for summit meetings there.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Bush said there should be a thorough screening of refugees coming into the United States and that there should be a focus on creating safe havens for refugees in Syria. “It’s going to take time”.
Each time, he appeared to take pains to navigate a narrow path – expressing his personal outrage at the “terrible and sickening” Paris attacks by calling the Islamic State “the face of evil”, while at the same time standing firm on a strategy that he acknowledged will take time to produce the results sought by the public.
“The strategy that we are putting forward is the strategy that is ultimately is going to work”, Obama said during a news conference at the close of two days of talks with world leaders.
“There were no specific mentions of this particular attack that would give us a sense of something that we could provide French authorities, for example, or act on ourselves”, he said.
Advertisement
He claimed progress was being made in the diplomatic front with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, on securing a long political transition in Syria, but he added: “There are a number of ways that this diplomatic initiative would falter”.
