BREMMER: The Paris attacks put Russian Federation and Iran ‘in a stronger position’

They should implement legal changes giving those services more authority to holding terrorism suspects for interrogation longer than 24 hours and permitting more aggressive raids aimed at disrupting plots, said Lynch, now a research fellow at National Defense University.

Its campaign of violence is not limited to a specific region, nationality, or religion.

ISIS has become many different things to different people.

Madam President, the United States, as a champion of freedom and democracy, has a duty to stand up against ISIS’ brand of radical Islam and stomp it out wherever it exists.

Where to turn for leadership to fight and defeat this clear and present danger to civilized society? From the start our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them.’ End quote.

“Unfortunately, ISIS does not appear to be contained. That doesn’t seem so tough to me”, the President said in Manila on the sidelines of an Asian regional summit. The next C-I-C must re-establish the strategy of identifying the extremist ideology that motivates this brand of Islam and incorporate this concept back into our counter terrorism training, military and intelligence communities.

Now he is coming under renewed criticism for having underestimated the threat posed by the Islamic State that left a blood-soaked trail of carnage through Paris.

Attacks against civilians in a European country are likely to weigh on consumer confidence, a major risk in a situation where the main driver of growth in Europe is consumer demand, with other components of demand still very subdued.

“I would hardly call such an attack a mere ‘setback.’ “. In the absence of reliable and effective local military allies, carving out such refuges would require US troops.

ISIS will not be defeated with guns and bombs alone, or even mainly. “That’s not American. That’s not who we are”, he continued.

In another remarkably ill-timed statement, Obama on Thursday – the day before the Paris attacks – told ABC News, “I don’t think (ISIS) is gaining strength” and declared, “We have contained them”.

“Since ISIS first occupied territory in Iraq and Syria and began recruiting foreign fighters, the possibility of these combatants returning home has been a concern to the United States and our allies”. Al-Qaida’s principal ambition is to launch attacks against the west and US homeland…. A few want to let in no Syrian refugees and others would only allow Christians. Once again, we would be in the middle of the war.

“Assad used chemical weapons on his own people, and hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost as a result of the conflict he created”.

As Paris mourns its dead, critics of President Obama’s caution in the fight against the Islamic State are full of sound and fury.

But the crisis of Syrian refugees is testing American politicians, given the choice between yielding to fears of importing terrorists or honoring the traditional USA welcoming role.

USA air strikes have been only “minimally effective” in destroying oil infrastructure in the hands of jihadists, a military spokesman said Wednesday, explaining why tanker trucks in Syria are now being targeted instead.

“On that point, I want to speak about a realistic strategy for defeating ISIS”.

While the security of one’s own people is an important consideration here, defunding refugee placement programs at the state level hurts the other 98.7 percent of refugees to Texas who don’t reside in Syria.

Meaning, the time has come for “The Coalition” to coordinate their airstrikes into massive joint attacks to combat ISIS.

Hard to say, but remember this: Just a month ago President Obama announced he was withdrawing plans to withdraw almost all of the remaining 9,800 American troops from Afghanistan and keep at least 5,500 USA troops in the country after he leaves office in January 2017.

Sanders and President Obama have both described ISIS as a group that is technologically savvy.

The problem, however, is not that the USA might be drawn into using ground forces in the Middle East; it’s the length of time of the mission, argues retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, former executive officer for retired Gen. David Petraeus in Baghdad during the surge of United States forces in 2007 and 2008.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, taking advantage of this shift in focus away from Assad and toward ISIS, echoed Hollande’s sentiment on Monday.