“They can’t beat us on the battlefield, so they try to terrorize us into being afraid, and changing our patterns of behavior, and panicking, and abandoning our allies and partners, and retreating from the world”, Obama said. More Democrats (45 %) allege he doesn’t have a plan than allege he does.
Advertisement
Obama’s stronger language on ISIS came after days of criticism for his response to the tragedy in Paris but did not signal a policy shift by the administration.
Obama said he used part of his time at the summit to work with regional partners who are members of the anti-ISIL coalition.
President Obama advised Americans not to give in to fear despite the ISIS attacks in Paris and Mali.
“American leadership is us caring about people who have been forgotten, or who have been discriminated against, or who’ve been tortured, or who’ve been subject to unspeakable violence or who’ve been separated from families at very young ages”, Obama said.
He said the USA would fight, dismantle and “ultimately destroy them” without losing America’s values and principles.
“Apparently, the children’re frightened of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America as part of our tradition of empathy”, Mr. Obama said on Wednesday, adding a second later: “That doesn’t sound quite tough to me”. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the unidentified young girl, whom the president made a public face of an global crisis, is one of 59.5 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide, nearly 20 million of whom are now refugees in another country.
As Mr. Obama has participated in a chain of economic summit meetings on this excursion, White House officials have repeatedly sought to accentuate what they say is a comprehensive screening procedure for Syrian refugees that takes up to two years and comprises interviews and biometric information to ensure that terror suspects don’t enter the United States.
Former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerry of Nebraska, on the same panel, said the war with ISIS will be more than a physical war, but that if it is an actual physical war it will require ground troops, not just the airstrikes now taking place. We’re strengthened by people from every religion, including Muslim Americans. Prejudice and discrimination helps ISIL and undermines our national security.
More Americans support sending ground troops into Syria after the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13 that killed over 130 people. And the president met personally in Turkey with Putin, whose efforts to keep Assad in power has presented a major challenge to Obama’s efforts to remove him and negotiate an end to that nation’s civil war.
Advertisement
It remained uncertain, however, whether the United States and Russian Federation had made progress toward finding a common solution. And the debate over how to deal with the militant group and the Syrian refugees has become a leading issue on the 2016 campaign trail, with Republicans calling Obama weak and naïve.
