Barack Obama Explains The ‘Difficult Fight’ Against ISIS
President Barack Obama assures the American people that the United States military and allied forces are going to be “hitting ISIL harder than ever.” On Monday, December 14, President Obama said that the U.S.-led coalition has been steadily making progress against the Islamic State militants, both in Iraq and Syria.
“The point is, ISIL leaders cannot hide and our next message to them is simple: ‘You are next,”‘ Obama said.
According to the president, key members of the group’s leadership have been taken out by the coalition.
“Terrorists like ISIL are trying to divide us along lines of religion and background,” Obama said in his weekly address. “That’s how they stoke fear. That’s how they recruit.”
ISIS has lost nearly 40 percent of the area in Iraq that they had control of, being pushed back from a lot of the territory it had a hold of in Syria. President Barack Obama noted this progress after meeting with his national security team at the Pentagon. According to Obama, Defence Secretary Ash Carter will be making a trip to the Middle East in order to secure more military contributions for the battle against ISIS. But there seem to be a large number of Americans who are not happy with how the president is handling this fight against ISIS.
“The American people are smart enough to know when something is working or not, and it’s obvious that the president’s current strategy isn’t working,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement released on Monday. “Far from being contained — much less defeated — ISIS has now extended the reach of its terror farther than ever before.”
According to a poll by the New York Times, 57 percent of U.S. citizens disapprove of Obama’s handling of terrorism and the threat from Islamic State, while seven in 10 Americans believe the fight against Islamic State is going badly.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has not been shy at all about voicing his disapproval of Barack Obama’s approach to this issue.
“I mean, personally, I don’t think he was meant for this job, if you want to know the truth. The temperament is wrong. I watched that disastrous news conference yesterday. It was insulting. He wasn’t angry at the killers — the murderers, the animals — that did this horrible thing. He was angry at reporters — and I think some of the Republicans, frankly. But he was angry at the reporters. It’s not for him. And unfortunately we all have to suffer with it. But this job is not for him.”
During a conference call on Monday with religious leaders, the top White House officials assured that the Justice Department would be swift and vigilant in hunting down any hate crimes and other civil rights violations, maintaining the idea that an attack on any faith is an attack on all faiths. Barack Obama’s aides also held separate meetings at the White House with various Muslim leaders as well as with Sikh leaders. So far, U.S. officials believe that there are no legitimate threats to the United States.
“As we squeeze its heart, it’ll make it harder for ISIL to pump its terror and propaganda through the rest of the world,” Barack Obama said according to CNBC.
“Just as the United States is doing more in this fight, just as our allies — France, Germany and the United Kingdom, Australia, and Italy — are doing more, so must others. We recognize that progress needs to keep coming faster. No one knows that more than the countless Syrians and Iraqis living every day under ISIS’ terror, as well as the families in San Bernardino and Paris and elsewhere who are grieving the loss of their loved ones.”
[Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images]
