President Barack Obama sharply defended his strategy Monday for
going after ISIS amid mounting criticism that the U.S. is not doing enough to
stop the terror organization that went on a killing spree in Paris last week.
He faced a
barrage of tough and probing questions from international journalists at a G20
summit in Antalya, Turkey, that often put him on the defensive. In response, he
repeatedly stressed confidence in his approach to combating terrorism and
handling Syria, where a civil war has dogged his administration for years and
helped create an opening for ISIS to flourish.
"We have
the right strategy and we're going to see it through," Obama said.
"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" though it will take time.
He said that
airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have been effective in taking out key
members of the terror group's leadership and that a large presence of ground
troops in Syria would be a "mistake."
An increasing
chorus of critics, especially in the GOP, have called for a more aggressive
U.S. military effort in fighting ISIS, but Obama pushed back against that call.
"It is
not just my view but the view of my closest military and civilian advisers that
that would be a mistake," Obama said, adding that's "because we would
see a repetition of what we've seen before, which is if you do not have local
populations that are committed to inclusive governance and who are pushing back
against ideological extremes, that they resurface, unless we're prepared to
have a permanent occupation of these countries."
Last month, Obama committed to sending "less than 50"
Special Operations forces to the region to fight ISIS, also know as ISIL.
Obama used much of the press conference
to strike back at his critics, sounding at times defensive and combative. His
tone also contrasted with that of French President Francois Hollande, who was
speaking at the same time in France.
"France
is at war," Hollande declared, indicating he would ask parliament to
impose a three-month-long state of emergency.
Obama, for his
part, justified his use of the term "contained" last week to describe
the ISIS threat, a remark he made in an interview that aired just hours before
the Paris terror attack.
"When I
said that we are containing their spread in Iraq and Syria, in fact they
control less territory then they did last year and the more we shrink that
territory, the less they can pretend that they are somehow a functioning
state," Obama said Monday. "And the more it becomes apparent that
they are simply a network of killers who are brutalizing local populations that
allows us to reduce the flow of foreign fighters, which then over time will
lessen the numbers of terrorist who can potential carry out terrible acts like
they did in Paris."
He was also
dismissive of those who "seem to think that if I were just more bellicose
in expressing what we're doing, that would make a difference."
Instead, he
said, "We'll do what is required to keep the American people safe."
He continued,
"if folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they
would do, 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. "
He cited U.S.
efforts to help Kurds retake Sinjar Mountain in Iraq and the recent killing of
an ISIS leader in Libya as examples of his strategy working.
"ISIL
leaders will not have a safe-haven anywhere," he said, calling the terror
group the "face of evil."
In regards to
preventing the Paris attack, Obama said his intelligence agencies gave no
specific mentions of this particular attack that would have indicated something
that the U.S. could have provided French authorities.
"I'm not
aware of anything that is specific that would have given premonition of action
in Paris," he said.
But Obama did
announce that the United States would begin a new "streamlined"
process of sharing intelligence with France. He said the agreement will allow
intelligence personnel to "pass threat information, including on ISIL, to
our French partners more quickly and more often" and could help prevent
further attacks.
The fruits of
that cooperation were borne Sunday night, when French jets began a bombardment
of Raqqa, the Syrian headquarters of ISIS. A senior administration official
said the U.S. was assisting the operation.
But the
mission reflected only an incremental surge of existing strategy, which has focused
on using air power to take out ISIS sites in Iraq and Syria. White House
officials ruled out sending combat ground troops into Syria, and made no
indication it was rethinking a no-fly-zones.
Obama was
speaking just before departing from the G20 summit, being held at a Turkish
resort 500 miles from the Syrian border. The economic conference was already
slated to focus intently on combating ISIS before the Paris attacks; after the
mass violence in France, talks between Obama and other leaders revolved
primarily on the terror crisis.
He huddled for
30 minutes with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, agreeing during the
informal meeting on a path toward a political transition in Syria. He also
spoke with the king of Saudi Arabia and European leaders to consolidate support
for his plan against ISIS.
But there
appeared to be little appetite among foreign leaders here for a large-scale
ground effort in Syria.
The Paris
attacks have dashed whatever momentum Obama had been enjoying in his battle
against ISIS, including helping Kurdish fighters retake Sinjar Mountain in Iraq
and apparently killing the ISIS executioner "Jihadi John" in a drone
strike.
They've also
brought new scrutiny to the flood of refugees from Syria, which Obama has said
must prompt new measures by European nations to accommodate those fleeing their
country's civil war.
One of the
suspected culprits of the Paris terror attack is thought to have entered Europe
in the current wave of migrants, leading some leaders to demand tighter controls
on the flow.
The U.S. has
accepted only 1,500 refugees from Syria since 2011, but the White House said in
September that 10,000 would be allowed entry next year.
Obama
condemned critics who want a "religious test" for admitting refugees
from Syria, blasting the idea as un-American.
He also used
the charge to indirectly attack Republican 2016 presidential candidates.
"When I
hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for
which a person who is fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of
those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when
they were fleeing political persecution, that's shameful, that's not
American," Obama said. "That's not who we are. We don't have
religious tests (for) our compassion."
Florida Sen.
Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who are both running for president, are
the children of Cuban immigrants and have called for increased scrutiny of
refugees fleeing Syria who seek asylum in the U.S.
Obama called
on world leaders to accept refugees fleeing the conflicts in Syria and Iraq,
though he added that accepting refugees required "rigorous screening and
security checks."
"We also
have to remember that many of these refugees are victims of terrorism
themselves," Obama said.
"The
overwhelming majority of victims of terrorism ... are Muslims," Obama
added later. "ISIL does not represent Islam, it is not representative in
any way of the attitudes of the overwhelming majority of Muslims."
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