In the weeks since the terrorist attacks in Paris, President Obama has stressed in speech after speech that America’s law enforcement and homeland security officials are “relentless.” He has insisted that the country remains “strong” and “resilient.”
His decision to speak to the nation Sunday night from the Oval Office, just days after the deadly terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., reflects a broad concern in the White House that the American people, distracted by the overheated cacophony of the campaign season, are not listening to him.
Obama is not expected to use the prime-time speech to outline any major shifts in the battle against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which he has repeatedly said will take years to complete and will not involve large commitments of U.S. ground troops. Nor is he expected to propose any major new domestic security initiatives.
“I think what you’re going to hear the president say is to call on the American people to pull out the best in themselves and not give into fear at this time,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The absence of big, new policy proposals reflects the difficulty Obama faces and the lack of any low-cost or tidy solutions to ease the concerns of the American people following a string of deadly attacks over the past month.
The Islamic State’s core leadership in Syria played a role in planning the attack in Paris and the bombing of a Russian jet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, according to intelligence reports. In San Bernardino, the attackers seem to have been inspired by Islamic State propaganda online but were not part of an organized group.
Such home-grown, self-radicalized attacks are notoriously resistant to detection by U.S. intelligence services and designed to provoke division and a backlash against Muslims.
At home, Obama has stressed repeatedly that an overly fearful reaction to the terrorist attacks could make the United States more vulnerable. “The goal of ISIL is to propagate a religious war,” said a senior administration official, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “It’s important that Muslim Americans not be demonized, first because it is wrong . . . and because it plays into ISIL’s narrative of a religious war.”
White House officials said that a run of what they regard as fear-mongering and xenophobic speeches on the presidential campaign trail has heightened the need for Obama to speak to the nation.
“There is a growing noise out there from the Republican candidates with a race to see who can have the most heated rhetoric,” said a second senior administration official. “That’s part of the reason why there’s a need for the president to talk about what we’ve done. The administration officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview Obama’s speech.
Regarding action overseas, Obama once again will make the case that a steady, multi-year campaign is the best option for defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Since the Paris attacks, the Obama administration has deployed small numbers of Special Operations forces to Iraq and Syria and increased the pace of airstrikes.
“We’re stepping up pressure on ISIL where it lives, and we will not let up — adjusting our tactics where necessary — until they are beaten,” Obama said just before Thanksgiving, flanked by key members of his homeland security team.
A few days earlier, in an appearance with the French president, Obama noted that the United States and its allies had conducted more than 8,000 airstrikes targeting the Islamic State’s leadership, troops and equipment.
So far, that effort has produced only mixed results. Even with the help of U.S. air power, Iraqi forces haven’t been able to retake any major cities from the Islamic State. The first forces trained by the U.S. military in Syria were completely overmatched by their more-radical foes. Obama has responded by counseling patience.
Obama’s struggle to be heard is a product of a political season in which much of the focus has shifted to presidential aspirants. It also reflects some of the president’s own shortcomings after two terms in office — including a sense among some Americans that he has tended to play down the threat of terrorists.
When the Islamic State was gaining momentum and taking territory, Obama dismissed the group. Only days before the Paris attacks, he said that the Islamic State had been “contained.” Administration officials said the president was referring specifically to the group’s ability to seize new ground in Iraq and Syria.
Obama has responded to the critiques by warning that an overreaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks led the United States to rush into an unwise war in Iraq. “I think we made some bad decisions subsequent to that attack, in part based on fear, and that’s why we have to be cautious about it,” he said two weeks ago while visiting Asia.
Today, Obama faces a situation that is somewhat analogous to that of his predecessor, former president George W. Bush. After years of American casualties and costly setbacks, Americans by 2006 had begun to question whether Bush understood the conflict. Bush responded with a new strategy that involved the deployment of more than 30,000 additional soldiers and Marines.
There are far fewer American soldiers in harm’s way today than in 2006 and 2007, when more than 100 U.S. troops were being killed each month and heavy pressure was on Bush to withdraw U.S. forces.
Now the pressure is on Obama to escalate a war that he had hoped to end. His response has been to appeal to Americans’ inner strength. “We are resilient,” he said in his Saturday radio address to the nation. “And we will not be terrorized.”
