Obama Says Russian Federation Needs ‘Strategic Adjustment’ On ISIS

“For more than a year, the United States has built and led a broad coalition against ISIL of a few 65 nations”, Obama said Sunday. More Democrats (45 %) allege he doesn’t have a plan than allege he does.

Only 23 percent, meanwhile, say the president has articulated a definitive blueprint for fighting the extremist group. Support for sending ground troops rose to 57 % in February within the immediate aftermath of the death of aid employee Kayla Mueller, still then dropped below 50 % until now.

Obama said that, as the USA president, he will not allow terrorists to make people panic, live in fear, change their behavior patterns, abandon their partners and allies or retreat from the world.

“We will not accept the idea that terrorist assaults on restaurants and theaters and hotels are the new normal, or that we are powerless to stop them”, President Obama told reporters here at the end of a nine-day trip.

“Apparently, the children’re frightened of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America as part of our tradition of empathy”, Mr. Obama said on Wednesday, adding a second later: “That doesn’t sound quite tough to me”.

He also addressed sometimes shrill calls for the United States to close its doors to refugees from Syria and Iraq, for fear militants may lurk among them.

The United States could never be at war with any religion because America is made up of multiple religions, ” Obama said.

“With TPP, we’re not only writing the rules for trade in the Asia Pacific, we also have an historic opportunity to shape the future of the global economy”, he said, adding: “It says that America’s foreign policy rebalance to the Asia Pacific will continue on every front”. “So I want to be as clear as I can on this – prejudice and discrimination helps (ISIS) and undermines our national security”. “And the notion that somehow we would be fearful of them, that our politics would somehow leave us to turn our sights away from their plight, is not representative of the best of who we are”.

The president nevertheless stressed that the U.S. had to take the Islamic State threat seriously and that the jihadist group would eventually be defeated.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll this week found that fears among Americans about terrorist attacks on USA soil have risen sharply since the Paris attacks, which killed 130 people.

“The American people are right to be concerned”, Obama said Sunday. Hollande heads to Moscow on Thursday, just after his White House meeting, to better coordinate military action with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We will cut down their finances, we will hunt them down, we will destroy ISIL”, he said.