Paris a ‘terrible and sickening’ setback in Islamic State fight: Obama

BELEK, Turkey President Barack Obama ruled out a shift in strategy in the fight against Islamic State on Monday despite the deadly attacks in Paris, saying putting more US troops on the ground as sought by his political critics “would be a mistake”.

He said: “We need to be doing everything we can to protect against more attacks and protect our people”. “There will be an intensification of the strategy we have put forward, but the strategy we have put forward is the strategy that will ultimately work”.

He says they should present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisers are better than my chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them.

President Obama said Monday that there was “nothing specific” in America’s intelligence gathering that could have predicted the horrific terrorist attack in Paris, while Iraqi claims that their intelligence service tried to sound the alarm just 24 hours before the tragedy unfolded.

Obama has been criticized for his administration’s handling of the current turmoil in Syria and Iraq, with a few Republicans calling for a more aggressive approach that would include more USA troops on the ground in the region. Obama called that notion “shameful”. Bush has also suggested that any USA assistance to refugees fleeing the Middle East should be primarily focused on Christians, another idea that rankled Obama.

The President said ISIS controls less territory than it did past year. “That’s not American. That’s not who we are”. “And the more it becomes apparent that they are simply a network of killers who are brutalizing local populations”.