Obama’s Clueless Terrorism Speech Impressed No One

Terrorism suddenly rivals the economy as the single most important issue to Americans in the 2016 presidential election – and a year out, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds more people paying close attention to the contest than at this point in any race back to 1988.

In the president’s address Sunday night – Obama urged everyone to **not** turn against one another after the shooting in California…to not let the fight be between Americans and Islam.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., appearing on Fox News right after the speech, said Obama failed to address public concerns about the threats from the Islamic State. “I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure”, he said.

This is only the third time Obama has given an Oval Office address, an event reserved for major, serious topics. “We also need to make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons”, he declared, “like the ones that were used in San Bernardino”. Even the center’s private security company said it could no longer protect the mosque from an attack. Obama said his strategy to destroy ISIS is designed and supported by USA military commanders and counter-terrorism experts, together with 65 countries that have joined an American-led coalition targeting the terror outfit. When we make rash decisions, reacting to the headlines instead of using our heads; when the first response to a challenge is to send in our military, then we risk getting drawn into unnecessary conflicts, and neglect the broader strategy we need for a safer, more prosperous world.

Donald Trump tweeted, “Is that all there is?” The Florida Republican said he believes the current US approach lacks “intensity” – whatever that means in this context – but he didn’t reject any specific parts of Obama’s strategy. “ISIL fighters were part of the insurgency that we faced in Iraq”. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said the U.S. faces a real threat from radical Islamic terrorism.

“Pledging to destroy Islamic State, US President Barack Obama has called on Muslim leaders at home and around the world to speak out against the terrorist organisation and its ‘hateful” ideology.

Last week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., was terrifying enough when early reports suggested it was driven by workplace rage.

“I believe that the leadership of the congress would like to move ahead and there are some in the congress who come not really wanting to move ahead”, Lugar said.

“The terrorists seek to tear down the very constitutional rights we enjoy and that countless men and women have fought to defend, to react by trying to limit the rights enshrined by our constitution would be a bad mistake”.

As for some GOP calls for American ground forces, Obama repeated that he does not want to see the United States bogged down in another Middle East war.

At the Islamic Institute of Orange County in Anaheim, the mosque’s imam, Mohammed Faqih, said he also found Obama’s comments offensive.