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 In a rare Oval Office address, Obama sought to calm a U.S. public
increasingly jittery about the fight against Islamist militancy that
once appeared to be waged overseas. His remarks failed to quiet
Republican critics who have long accused him of underestimating the
militants' strength and staying power.
Speaking in a measured tone, Obama used his 14-minute nationally
televised appearance to draw a careful line about what he would and
would not do. He pledged, for example, to "hunt down terrorist
plotters" anywhere they are. But he insisted: "We should not be
drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria."
Obama spoke just four days after U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook, 28,
and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, opened fire on a holiday
party for civil servants in San Bernardino, California, killing 14
people. The pair were killed hours later in a shootout with police.
Obama condemned the attack as "an act of terrorism designed to kill
innocent people." But he also said San Bernardino showed that "the
terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase" as Islamic State used
the Internet to "poison the minds" of potential assailants.
Obama also made a connection between national security and the need
for gun control following America's latest mass shooting.
The FBI is investigating the paramilitary-style attack in California
as inspired by Islamic State, which controls swaths of Syria and
Iraq and has shown an expanded reach beyond its Middle East
strongholds, including complicity in the Nov. 13 assaults in Paris
that killed 130 people.
But Obama, whose restraint contrasted sharply with French President
Francois Hollande's impassioned words after the Paris attacks when
he vowed a "merciless" response, said there was no evidence the
California assault was directed by a militant group overseas or part
of a broader conspiracy at home.
Nevertheless, Obama sought to show his administration was on top of
the crisis, despite new questions raised about the country's
defenses against homegrown extremism.
"The threat from terrorism is real but we will overcome it," Obama
said.
Obama's Republican critics, including the party's presidential
candidates, quickly panned his speech, just the third he has
delivered from the Oval Office since he took office in January 2009.
"People are scared not just because of these attacks but because of
a growing sense that we have a president that is completely
overwhelmed by them," Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is seeking
the Republican presidential nomination for the November 2016
election, told Fox News.
DIGITAL DEBATE LOOMING WITH SILICON VALLEY
Delivering his speech from a lectern, Obama called on Silicon Valley
to help address the threat of militant groups using social media and
electronic communications to plan and promote violence, setting up
renewed debate over personal privacy online.Obama also seized the
opportunity to make the case again for U.S. gun control, something
he has done to little avail because of stiff Republican resistance,
following numerous shooting sprees during his presidency.
 "We also need to make it harder for people to buy powerful assault
weapons like the ones that were used in San Bernardino," Obama said.
"What we can do - and must do - is make it harder for them to kill."
A senior administration official said Obama had no immediate plans
to visit San Bernardino.
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At the same time, Obama cautioned against overreaction to the
militant threat at home.
"We cannot turn against each other by letting this fight be defined
as a war between America and Islam," he said, alluding to the
incendiary rhetoric by Republican presidential candidates like
Donald Trump, which is seen by critics as fear-mongering against the
Muslim community.
Given that the California couple were not on the U.S. national
security radar before they launched their shooting spree on
Wednesday, Obama faced the challenge of convincing the U.S. public
he is doing everything possible to deal with an evolving militant
threat.
There was mounting evidence that the pair were “lone wolf”
assailants who may have become radicalized by Islamic State
propaganda and then acted independently, making it all the more
difficult for authorities to track them.
Last week's massacre, if proven to be linked to or motivated by
foreign Islamist militancy, would be the deadliest such incident on
U.S. soil on Obama’s watch and since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked
plane attacks on New York and Washington.
Obama’s address came amid growing pressure from Republicans and even
some Democrats for a tougher response to Islamic State now that the
San Bernardino shootings have raised fears among Americans about the
threat of more attacks at home.
Obama's last speech in the Oval Office, a symbol of presidential
power, was in August 2010, when he hailed the end of U.S. combat
operations in Iraq, a milestone in his campaign promise to extract
the United States from the war there.
His policy was upended, however, with the meteoric rise of Islamic
State.
Since late last year, Obama has deployed about 3,500 U.S. troops
back to Iraq on a train-and-advise mission. The Pentagon announced
last week it was sending scores more in a special operations
expeditionary force against Islamic State. Critics are calling for
more aggressive action.
Among the few specific requests in his speech was for Congress to
pass legislation that would block individuals who are on the
government no-fly list from purchasing guns. That would not have
stopped the California couple, however, since they were not on any
government terrorism watch list.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Jeff Mason and Roberta Rampton;
Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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