“This was a terrorist act created to kill innocent people”, Obama said in a speech to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House.
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In an address to the nation, Obama said the terrorist threat to the United States is evolving to one that makes use of home-grown terrorists radicalized by jihadi propaganda and persuasion. Using an acronym for the group, he declared: “We will destroy ISIL”. After more than a year of an indecisive military campaign, ISIS maintains its sanctuaries in Iraq and Syria to conduct and inspire attacks like Paris and San Bernardino, he said.
Asserting that the terrorist group, Islamic State (IS) does not speak for Islam, US President Barack Obama has urged Islamic leaders across the world to speak out against the terrorist outfit and its ideology, reports Press Trust of India (PTI). A look at what Obama said in his 13-minute Oval Office address. “We will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless, and by drawing upon every aspect of American power”.
“Second, we will continue to provide training and equipment to tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting ISIL on the ground so that we take away their safe havens”.
He will talk about his determination to destroy the Islamic State.
The address is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
President Barack Obama misspoke when he said the female assailant in the San Bernardino shootings, Tashfeen Malik, came to the United States under the visa waiver program.
Act of terrorThe young Muslim couple who mounted the California attack “had gone down the dark path of radicalisation, embracing a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West”.
OBAMA HIGHLIGHTS THE ESSENCE OF NOT RETROGRADING INTO GROUND WAR: Obama wisely explained, “We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria.
The attacks in San Bernardino should serve as a wake-up call for Obama and Clinton that the way to victory is not through the status quo but refocusing our efforts to defeat ISIS”, Priebus said. “His statement about citizens not being able to buy guns on the no-fly list is problematic in terms of lack of due process, plus raising that point had nothing to do with San Bernardino”.
Sunday’s address was particularly significant because it marked only the third time Obama has spoken to the American public from the Oval Office, which is located in the West Wing of the White House and considered the president’s official office.
Obama called on Muslim communities around the world to reject radicalism and the IS ideology and to join in the fight against terrorism.
Obama has been criticized for years for what critics say is his failure to recognize the growing threat of ISIS, calling the group a “JV team” and saying the Paris attacks were just a “setback” in the fight against extremism.
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“This is a real problem that Muslims must confront, without excuse”, he said.
