Obama: US will defeat ISIS
The President of the US delivered a rare prime time address from the Oval Office on Sunday, during which he vowed to destroy ISIS without putting boots on the ground, saying that Americans should not 'let this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam.'
In a rare Oval Office address, President Barack Obama vowed the United States would overcome a new phase of the terror threat that seeks to "poison the minds" of people here and around the world, as he sought to reassure Americans shaken by recent attacks in Paris and California.
Obama promised to turn to congress for increased funding for the campaign against the terror group, but added that,"We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground in Iraq and Syria, and we cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, is what groups like ISIS want."
It was only the second address by the president to take place on a Sunday night at prime time. The first was the press conference he held to announce the death of Osama Bin Laden.
His decision to speak in prime time reflected the White House's concern that his message on the recent attacks hasn't broken through, particularly in the midst of a heated presidential campaign.
Yet Obama's speech was likely to leave his critics unsatisfied. He announced no significant shift in US strategy and offered no new policy prescriptions for defeating IS, underscoring both his confidence in his current approach and the lack of easy options for countering the extremist group.
"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, speaking from a lectern in his West Wing office. "The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it."
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed the president's address as "a half-hearted attempt to defend and distract from a failing policy."
Obama did call for cooperation between private companies and law enforcement to ensure potential attackers can't use technology to evade detection. He also urged Congress to pass new force authorization for military actions under way against IS in Iraq and Syria, and also to approve legislation to bar guns from being sold to people prohibited from flying on planes in the US for terrorist concerns.
The president's most specific policy announcement was to order the departments of State and Homeland Security to review the fiance visa program that the female shooter in California used to enter the US In his remarks, Obama referred to a visa waiver program that Congress is also reviewing, but the White House later clarified he meant the fiance program.
