President Barack Obama sought on Sunday to calm jittery Americans after the terrorist attack last week in California, delivering a prime-time address created to underscore the government’s campaign against an evolving threat.
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President Barack Obama sought to assure the nation that the U.S.is doing everything possible to protect Americans from terrorism and to defeat the Islamic State group following the attacks in Paris and California. It marked a reversal from his more cavalier comments about comparing the Islamic State to “a JV [junior varsity] team” previous year and boasting last month that ISIS was “contained” just one day before the Paris attacks. “We will destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us”.
President Obama addressing the nation on terrorism and the recent San Bernardino attacks, December 6, 2015.
Obama did not announce any new policies or strategies, and he continued to oppose any large-scale ground troop presence in Syria or Iraq, where the Islamic State militant group has its stronghold.
He did call for a review of the visa waiver program for people seeking to come to the USA and said he would urge private companies and law enforcement leaders to work together to ensure potential attackers can’t use technology to evade detection. “It won’t require us sending in a new generation of Americans overseas to fight and die for another decade of foreign soil”, said the president.
He implored Americans to not turn against Muslims at home, saying IS was driven by a desire to spark a war between the West and Islam, but called on Muslims to fight extremism.
He says the US can and must make it harder for would-be mass shooters to kill by making it harder for them to obtain guns.
The speech was slammed, predictably, by Republican presidential candidates, but also by others who wanted to hear more.
He also seized the opportunity to make the case again for United States gun control.
“We must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than pushing them away through suspicion and hate”, Obama said. Gun rights advocates say such a ban would violate the rights of people who haven’t been convicted of crimes. “Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values, or giving in to fear”.
The president urged Muslim communities to be vigilant and report radicalization of their peers, but also called upon all Americans to avoid demonizing Islam and its followers.
However, he insisted the USA “should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria”.
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“We constantly examine our strategy to determine when additional steps are needed to get the job done”, Obama said.
