http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/14/obama-touts-military-gains-but-signals-no-strategy-shift-in-isis-fight.html?intcmp=hpbt3Obama touts military gains, but signals no strategy shift in ISIS fight
Published December 14, 2015 FoxNews.com
In what was billed as a major public push of his strategy to defeat ISIS, President Obama took only a few minutes Monday to outline gains against the terror organization in remarks at the Pentagon surrounded by close military advisers -- but offered no new shifts in strategy.
The president said the United States’ two-pronged approach to destroy the Islamic State -- with a massive air campaign and operation to take out leadership on the ground -- is making progress and sends the message, “You are next.”
“We are squeezing its heart and making it harder for them to pump out its propaganda and terror,” said Obama, following a rare meeting with his National Security Council at the Pentagon.
“ISIL leaders cannot hide, and our point to them is ‘You are next,’” the president said from the Pentagon briefing room, flanked by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and several U.S. generals.
The address was part of the president’s week-long, high-profile effort to ease Americans’ fears about the growing ISIS global and domestic terror threat and to further explain his strategy to stop the extremist group.
However, the address did not signal a change in the administration’s strategy to stop the group, which has flourished in Iraq and Syria and has recently been associated with deadly terror attacks in Paris, and most recently in California.
Obama’s strategy so far has focused on airstrikes in Syria, military support for Iraqi troops and a deployment of about 50 U.S. Special Forces members in Iraq and Syria.
The president also this week is slated for a briefing at the National Counterterrorism Center.
Obama’s visits to agencies charged with keeping the U.S. safe follow his Dec. 6 address from the Oval Office that attempted to reassure the public but that critics said failed to do the job.
After a series of setbacks, the U.S. and its coalition partners have claimed progress recently in wresting back territory from the Islamic State, or ISIS, and eliminating some of its key leaders in Syria and Iraq.
The military has said hundreds of U.S.-led airstrikes in recent days dealt a major blow to ISIS ranks in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, which the group seized in May.
But progress in Ramadi, as elsewhere, has been slow, leading to calls in the U.S. and abroad for a tougher U.S. response.
Obama’s visits this week also follow the deadly shootings earlier this month in San Bernardino, Calif., and the Paris attacks last month in which 130 people were killed.
The attackers in both incidents appeared to have at least been inspired by the Islamic State.
In the Dec. 2 attack, a Muslim husband-wife team fatally shot 14 people and wounded nearly two dozen others at a holiday party.
FBI Director James Comey said on Capitol Hill last week that each had “radicalized” for at least two years and bonded over online talk of "jihad" and "martyrdom."
Investigators originally suspected Tashfeen Malik, 29, radicalized her husband after she came to the U.S. in July of 2014 on a fiancée visa.
But they now believe Syed Farook, 28, was already committed to radical Islam before they met. In addition, Malik got the visa despite apparently express her desire publically to commit jihad.
U.S. officials insisted there are no new specific and/or credible threats to the United States. But the apparent lack of warning before San Bernardino has raised concerns about whether the U.S. has a handle on potential attacks, especially during high-profile times such as the end-of-year holidays.
At the National Counterterrorism Center, which analyzes intelligence at its facility in suburban Virginia, Obama planned to address reporters Thursday after a briefing by intelligence and security agencies on threat assessments. Obama receives a similar briefing each year before the holidays.
In addition, the White House scheduled a conference call Monday with religious leaders about ways to fight discrimination and promote religious tolerance.
Obama will also speak Tuesday at the National Archives Museum, where 31 immigrants from Iraq, Ethiopia, Uganda and 23 other nations will be sworn in as U.S. citizens.
Concerns about extremism emanating from the Middle East have also taken center stage in the presidential race. Obama has tried to use his bully pulpit as a counterpoint to GOP front-runner Donald Trump and his proposal to bar Muslims from entering the U.S. and to push back on other politicians insisting on halting resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S.
