Ken Berwitz
President BarackObama said Sunday that the United States and its international partners”will not relent” in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq andSyria (ISIS) and that the world would not accept theextremists\’ attacks on civilians in Paris andelsewhere as the “new normal.”
“The mostpowerful tool we have is to say we are not afraid,” Obama said as hewrapped up a nine-day trip to Turkey andAsia that was shadowed by terrorist attacks.
The president alsopressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to align himself with the U.S.-ledcoalition, noting that ISIS has been accused of bringing down a Russianpassenger jet last month, killing 224 people.
“He needs to goafter the people who killed Russian citizens,” he said of Putin.
The president spoke inMalaysia shortly before departing for Washington. His trip also took him to thePhilippines and Turkey, where he met with Putin on the sidelines of an internationalsummit.
While Russia hasstepped up its air campaign in Syria, Obama said Moscow has focused itsattention on moderate rebels fighting SyrianPresident Bashar Assad, a Russian ally. He called on Russia to makea “strategic adjustment” and drop its support for Assad, insistingthe violence in Syria cannot be stopped as long as Assad is in office.
“It will not workto keep him in power,” Obama said. “We can\’t stop the fighting.”
-In order not to relent, you have to do something to relent from. Dropping bombs and sending drones every now and again does not qualify…as proven by the fact that, in less than two years, ISIS has taken over enough land in Syria and Iraq to declare its own country, and is rapidly gaining in other Islamic states throughout the Middle East.-Maybe you\’re not afraid – no surprise given the fact that you have full armed security 24/7/365. But the rest of us do not. And because you have done next to nothing that stops them, when ISIS says it is going to hit, fewer and fewer of us have any confidence you will protect us. The sad fact is that. to a great many people in the US and abroad, islamic terrorists now have more credibility than you do.-On the world stage, Vladimir Putin is now seen as a far more important, far more directed and far more effective leader than you are. Having ceded the pre-eminence of the United States to a former KGB thug like Putin, you now sit in the back row and call out advice to him? My congratulations: it seemed impossible that you could become more of a laughingstock to the world, but you have managed to do so.-And regarding bashar al-assad staying in power, it was you, Mr. President, who allowed this to happen. When “Syrian rebel” meant people rising up against al-assad, instead of ISIS terrorists, you did little to help them. And when you publicly laid down “red lines” al-assad could not cross without major repercussions, then didn\’t do a thing when he crossed them, it was you who allowed him to stay in power. If we now have only a fraction of the influence in Syria that Putin does, it is because of you.
