Obama’s Zero Substance Speech from Oval Office
“The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. We will destroy ISIS and any other organisation that tries to harm us”. If we’re to succeed in defeating terrorism we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate.
But U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, said the president still hasn’t adequately addressed the threat since calling ISIS “the J.V. team” previous year. Queenie Wong reported last week that Facebook shut down the account of one of the San Bernardino shooters – Tashfeen Malik had praised the Islamic State on Facebook – a day after the shooting.
He laid the blame on people he said had “embraced a perverted interpretation of Islam”.
In his address to the American people Sunday, President Obama said Islamic State “does not speak for Islam” and noted the “millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology”.
The failure of Congress to vote on a new legal framework for the war against the Islamic State has always been a problem, but especially now with the administration deploying elite troops to carry out raids in Syria and Iraq. It’s what the Islamic State wants, and as Europe has learned the hard way, isolating Muslims can breed more jihadists.
But Obama, whose restraint contrasted sharply with French President Francois Hollande’s impassioned words after the Paris attacks when he vowed a “merciless” response, said there was no evidence the California assault was directed by a militant group overseas or part of a broader conspiracy at home.
That includes, Obama said, rejecting religious tests for people coming into America, something several GOP candidates for president have supported.
Obama has also asked Congress to approve a new use-of-force authorization that would update the global war-on-terror resolution Congress first approved in 2001. The delay led Republicans to charge him with failing to acknowledge the attack on his watch, a criticism Obama answered clearly on Sunday.
“What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon”, the President talked about.
“I think the President was quite direct about the role that those Muslim Americans can play in defeating ISIL, both in terms of the responsibility that the Muslim community has to stand up and speak out against those extremist voices inside their community”, he said.
Obama ended his speech on a note of unity, encouraging Americans to recall traditional American values.
Second, he said, the coalition will continue to train and equip tens of thousands of Iraqi and Syrian forces fighting ISIL on the ground to eliminate its safe havens.
Seth Jones with the Rand Corporation praised Obama’s remarks on Muslim Americans.
“We need to define the enemy the way the enemy sees itself”, said Jonathan Matusitz, associate professor of human communication and author of the book “Terrorism and Communication”.
But he had also made another appeal, this one to Muslim communities.
The choice of a little-used location for his address underscored not only the public concern about further threats in the aftermath of the Paris and California attacks but also how Obama has struggled to convince people that his counterterrorism plan can be effective.