Obama Defends U.S. Strategy Against ISIS

“No, that’s far from the truth and he knew it”, Maginnis says of Obama.

At least one the attackers has been identified as a native Syrian who posed as a refugee as he traveled from Syria to France, leading many to cast a critical eye on the worldwide response to the situation. “And we can have that debate”.

Still, if a shocked world hoped for personal mea culpas, bombastic vows of vengeance or a cathartic show of public emotion from the USA president, it was disappointed at his first major public appearance since the horror that blighted the City of Light.

But those who see him as weak and lacking the public fortitude sometimes required of an American president would also have had their belief confirmed that Obama is stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that the world is in the grip of a new global terrorist insurgency that requires bolder action.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Obama’s statements “excuse-laden and defensive”. The assault in the heart of Western Europe was part of a troubling pattern showing the group focusing new attention on targets outside its base in Iraq and Syria.

Putin launched an air campaign in Syria a month-and-half ago with the Islamic State as the top declared target.

Rather than casting about for a new strategy, Obama said US would intensify its current campaign of airstrikes and arming and training moderate forces.

About the idea that the United States should only accept Christians fleeing Syria, Obama said it was “shameful”. “But as I said from the start, it’s going to take time”.

The president has deployed more than 3,000 USA troops to Iraq to assist local security forces, and he recently announced plans to send 50 special operations forces to Syria.

But he said large numbers of USA troops on the ground would repeat what he sees as the mistake of the Iraq invasion of 2003 and would not help solve the terrorism problem.

Obama appeared emotional as he spoke of the consequences of war, referencing the injured troops he visits at Walter Reed, a military hospital near the White House.

“Some of those are people I’ve ordered into battle”, he said.

What won’t work, he said, is sending thousands more us troops into the fight. “What happens when there is a terrorist attack generated from Yemen?”

He also stated this is something that should bring nations together to fight against terrorism. From Turkey, Obama headed to Asia for regional summits in the Philippines and Malaysia.

The president conceded there were challenges in defeating the Islamic State given that its fighters have a “willingness to die”.

The Islamic State’s increasing focus on targets outside the military has raised questions about whether Obama underestimated the group.

The terror group ISIS, or the Islamic State, has taken credit for the attacks in Paris that left about 129 dead and hundreds of others wounded.

Obama mocked the suggestion he should use similar language.