Obama Slays Another Republican Talking Point By Explaining His Strategy To Dismantle ISIS

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During his press conference at the NATO summit today, President Obama put another Republican talking point out of its misery by explaining his strategy to dismantle ISIS.

Video:

Transcript:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You can’t contain an organization that is running roughshod through that much territory, causing that much havoc, displacing that many people, killing that many innocents, enslaving that many women. The goal has to be to dismantle them.

And if you look at what happened with al Qaeda in the FATA, where their primary base was, you initially push them back. You systematically degrade their capabilities. You narrow their scope of action. You slowly shrink the space, the territory that they may control. You take out their leadership. And over time, they are not able to conduct the same kinds of terrorist attacks as they once could.

As I said I think in my last press conference, given the nature of these organizations, are there potentially remnants of an organization that are still running around and hiding and still potentially plotting? Absolutely. And we will continue to hunt them down the same way we’re doing with remnants of al Qaeda in the FATA or elements of al-Shabaab in Somalia, or terrorists who operate anywhere around the world.

But what we can accomplish is to dismantle this network, this force that has claimed to control this much territory, so that they can’t do us harm. And that’s going to be our objective. And as I said before, I’m pleased to see that there’s unanimity among our friends and allies that that is a worthy goal and they are prepared to work with us in accomplishing that goal.

So much for the Republican talking point that the president doesn’t have a strategy to deal with ISIS. Obama has proven track record of terrorist neutralization. His methods have worked in the past, and there is no reason that they won’t be effective in dealing with ISIS. Republicans going back to George W. Bush have refused to understand that terrorism can’t be defeated with an invading army. The concept of terrorism can’t be defeated with ground troops.

President Obama is correct. The best way to defeat terrorism is to neutralize the threat. Notice that President Obama didn’t use George W. Bush war on terror lingo. This president has more reality based understanding of what it takes to deal with a terrorist threat. ISIS wants to provoke the US into another ground war, but Obama isn’t going to fall for it.

The Obama strategy is better than the Republican strategy of sending a bunch of troops to invade a country that had nothing to do with the terrorist attack on American soil. It’s clear that the president has clear goal, while the only strategy that Republicans have is the one that let Osama Bin Laden roam free while American troops died in Iraq.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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