President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the threat of terrorism to the United States has evolved into a new phase in the wake of recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., but he vowed that the nation will ultimately defeat the Islamic State and other militant groups.
“The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it,” Obama said during a 14-minute Oval Office address. Using an acronym for the group, he declared: “We will destroy ISIL.”
Obama hoped the rare prime-time address would help reassure an uneasy nation after a series of deadly terrorist attacks. Obama, who has struggled to calm public fears, late last week made the decision to speak directly to the nation — only the third time he has used the venue — and had been working on his remarks through the weekend.
Obama said the effort to defeat terrorists will “not depend on tough talk or abandoning our values or giving in to fear. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless.”
Obama urged the public not to react with fear that could flame divisive rhetoric against the Muslim community and, the president believes, provide ballast to the Islamic State’s propaganda campaign.
“Let’s make sure we never forget what makes us exceptional,” he said. “Let’s not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear.”
Aides said his aim Sunday was to clearly spell out the extent of the terrorist threats to the United States, explain his approach to fighting extremists in the Middle East and their propaganda on the Internet, and caution the American people from reacting in ways that Obama believes could exacerbate the problem.
But the challenge for Obama, who has been steadfast that he will not dramatically change course despite the recent attacks, has been to convince the public that an effort that he has said will take years to destroy the Islamic State can keep the country safe in the meantime.
“It will take time, and success will not be linear,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday on CNN. Asked whether the world is more dangerous than when she assumed her role in 2013, Rice added: “It’s certainly unsettled, and we’re dealing with some very significant threats.”
The president recently authorized 50 special forces to Syria to help advise rebel fighters and assist in ongoing airstrikes from a 65-member coalition led by the United States.
The administration also has won new commitments from France, Germany and the United Kingdom in recent weeks, and the coalition has begun targeting Islamic State oil supplies through airstrikes.
Yet for Obama, the decision to use the august setting of the Oval Office — his first prime-time address from there since 2010 — highlights the concern in the West Wing that terrorism fears will overtake the rest of Obama’s agenda in his final year in office.
The president has ruled out deploying significant U.S. military troops to the region, relying instead on airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition and providing assistance to local forces in Iraq and Syria.
Obama and his advisers have pointed to success in some areas of Iraq, where the Islamic State has lost territory. But the string of recent attacks claimed by the Islamic State — including the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula — have alarmed the public and led Republicans to charge that Obama has underestimated the group.
Although the United States has long been divided over gun laws and national security, the latest massacre — an act of pre-planned terrorism that also bears the confused markings of a random workplace attack — has only muddled the question of which debate is more pressing.
A sharp political debate broke out on Sunday among the presidential candidates in the 2016 race over what lessons to take from the mass shooting in San Bernardino and whether tighter gun laws, better intelligence-gathering or a more-aggressive fight against the Islamic State terrorist group could help prevent more carnage.
Excerpt from the address
“Tonight, I want to talk with you about this tragedy, the broader threat of terrorism and how we can keep our country safe. The FBI is still gathering the facts about what happened in San Bernardino, but here’s what we know. The victims were brutally murdered and injured by one of their co-workers and his wife. So far, we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home. But it is clear that the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization, embracing a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West. They had stockpiled assault weapons, ammunition and pipe bombs.
So this was an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people. Our nation has been at war with terrorists since al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans on 9/11. …
Over the last few years, however, the terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase. As we’ve become better at preventing complex multifaceted attacks like 9/11, terrorists turn to less complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are all too common in our society.”
