“That we have always met challenges, whether war or depression, natural disasters or terrorist attacks, by coming together around our common ideals as one nation and one people.”, he continued.
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“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”.
“What we can do and must do, is make it harder for them to kill”, Obama said. “Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless”, Obama said.
Obama cast the San Bernardino attack, which killed 14 people, as part of a string of deadly attacks by radical Muslims – including in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas, at the Boston Marathon in 2013 and in Chattanooga, Tennessee, earlier this year – as the clearest signal yet that there is a homegrown threat from radicalized Muslims.
“We will destroy ISIL and any other organisation that tries to harm us”, he said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as he urged Congress to take action on several fronts.
“That’s what groups like [ISIS] want”, he said. And their carping would have more credibility if they would specifically authorize military force against the Islamic State as Obama has asked. He said he would also pursue a cease-fire agreement in Syria, which would allow for a “common goal” between the United States and Russian Federation to pursue ISIS.
“After so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure”, said Mr. Obama in a solemn address from the Oval Office, adding that the San Bernardino massacre was evidence of an “evolving” and increasingly homegrown threat. President Obama is calling for Congress to change this loophole before another San Bernardino attack happens.
Donald Trump played right into the terrorists’ hands with his ridiculous call Monday for a “complete and total shutdown” on Muslims entering the U.S. Conducted before the shootings, the poll also found that 60 percent disapprove of Obama’s handling of terrorism. The President believes it is crucial that this country maintain good solid working relationships with the Muslim community in this country, not just as an matter of tolerance, but as a matter of counterterrorism success, being able to detect, infiltrate, and potentially stop terrorist attacks before they start.
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. They are thugs and killers.
Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes.
“It is, for people to look at us suspiciously now or as some potential threat, because we’ve been here all our lives, we’ve contributed to society”, he said.
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Obama’s gun push has no chance of passing a Republican-led Congress. The Senate last week rejected legislation barring people suspected by the government of being violent extremists from purchasing firearms. “What we can do, and must do, is make it harder for them to kill”, he said.
