Obama vows to hit Islamic State harder, says commandos now in Syria

“Let’s assume that we were to send 50,000 troops into Syria”, Obama said.

Sixty percent said they think military action against the Islamic State is in the country’s interest.

Obama’s visits to the Pentagon and the National Counterterrorism Center are part of a push to further explain his terrorism-fighting strategy, White House officials said, after a prime-time Oval Office address last Sunday that critics said failed to do much to reassure the public.

ISIS has not had a successful ground operation in Iraq and Syria since this Summer, Obama said.

On a conference call Monday with religious leaders, top White House officials pledged vigilance by the Justice Department in pursuing hate crimes and other civil rights violations, calling an attack on any faith an attack on all faiths.

The president’s string of terror-related appearances this week, shortly before Christmas, comes amid public jitters about the specter of extremism after deadly attacks in California and Paris. Seven in 10 people now rate the threat of a terrorist attack inside the United States as extremely or very high, after just half said so at the beginning of the year. “Some ISIL fighters are defecting”, Obama added.

Particularly after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the Obama administration’s strategy to degrade and destroy Islamic State.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter is set to depart for the Middle East to secure more military contributions for the fight against ISIS.

“Abu Sayyaf, one of their top leaders; Haji Mutazz, ISIL’s second-in command; Junaid Hussain, a top online recruiter; Mohamed Emwazi, who brutally murdered Americans and others; and in recent weeks, finance chief Abu Saleh; senior extortionist Abu Maryam; and weapons trafficker Abu Rahman al-Tunisi”, Obama said as he read from a list.

He said the effort has caused the extremists to relinquish thousands of square miles of territory in Syria and about 40 percent of the land it once held in Iraq. A majority of Republicans support presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to temporarily block Muslims from entering the United States, even as a clear majority of the public overall rejects the idea in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said they think it is likely the USA will deploy ground troops, including 43 percent who said it was “moderately likely” and 31 percent who said it was “extremely/very likely”.

He vowed Monday to accelerate the U.S.-led military campaign in both Syria and Iraq, and revealed that a group of American special operations commandos has begun working with local fighters in Syria to “tighten the squeeze” on Raqqa, the extremists’ nominal capital.

“ISIL leaders can not hide, and our message to them is simple: you are next”, he declared, again cautioning against a “costly ground war”, saying that would be used by ISIS to attract more recruits, and result in more American deaths.

Opinion: Ground Troops in Syria?