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Obama rules out US troops on ground to fight Daesh
Champ at his petulant worst...
President Barack Obama ruled out a shift in strategy in the fight against Daesh on Monday despite the deadly attacks in Paris, saying putting more US troops on the ground as sought by his political critics "would be a mistake."

Speaking after a G20 summit in Turkey, Obama described the attacks in France that killed 129 people as "a terrible and sickening setback" and vowed to redouble efforts to destroy Daesh, even as the group threatened to strike Washington.

Mindful of the difficulties that the United States had in controlling Iraq after its invasion in 2003, Obama is very reluctant to commit American ground forces to Middle East conflict zones.

"We are going to continue the strategy that has the best chance of working," he told a news conference, adding that there would be "an intensification" of the effort against Daesh.

Obama pushed back against Republicans and said some were only recommending what the administration had already done against Daesh while others seemed to think if he were "just more bellicose ... that would make a difference."

"This is not a traditional military opponent. We can retake territory and as long as we keep our troops there we can hold it. But that does not solve the underlying problem of eliminating the dynamics that are producing these kinds of violent, extremist groups," Obama said.

A majority of Americans want the United States to intensify its assault on Daesh following the Paris attacks, but most remain opposed to sending troops to Iraq or Syria, where the militant group is based, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Obama told reporters that US intelligence agencies had been concerned about a potential attack on the West by Daesh for more than a year, but he said none of the warnings they had received were specific enough to have prevented Friday's attacks in Paris. Even so, the United States is streamlining the process by which it shares intelligence and operational military information with France.

Obama criticised as "shameful" the idea that Christian refugees should be given preference by the United States in decisions over admitting people fleeing violence in Syria.
I think that makes his own biases very clear...
October 17, 2006, "The Audacity of Hope" [pg. 261]: Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

Posted by: Steve White 2015-11-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=435830