AT least 129 people were killed and 352 wounded after three groups of terrorists staged coordinated attacks at six locations throughout Paris, France late Friday, Nov. 13.
ISIS, a jihadist organization that has declared a self-styled “caliphate” across parts of Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the massacre, and warned that the United States will be the next target. The nation’s state capital, Washington, DC and New York City, have now been on heightened security alert.
According to reports by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reacted Saturday to the deadly attacks in Paris, taking France to task and calling on it to change policies that he says have contributed to the “spread of terrorism”.
AFP said France has been a leading supporter of the Syrian opposition since soon after protests against Assad’s rule broke out in 2011. France has also been part of a US-led coalition conducting an air war against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
Less than a year before the 2016 presidential elections in the US, national and global security have once again dominated the debate. Candidates aiming to be the next commander-in-chief, along with their party mates, offer their own tactics on how to defeat ISIS and keep America safe.
Questions in contention are: Should America send more troops and boots on the ground? Should America still accept Syrian refugees who’ve been caught in the war between the Assad regime and the opposition? Should America be stricter and more suspicious of Muslims in America?
President Barack Obama has once again been criticized for not being “strong enough” in the fight against ISIS. Many Republicans have been advocating for America to send boots on the ground to extinguish the extremist group.
They blame Obama for empowering ISIS by appearing to be “weak” when he did not declare war against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad after he stepped on the “red line.”
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation,” Obama stated.
Obama’s critics argue that because of the continued strife in Syria, ISIS has grown stronger and is not afraid of the US military.
According to CNN, more than 250,000 people have died since the violence broke out in Syria in 2011, and at least 11 million people in the country of 22 million have fled their homes. The United Nations says Syrians are now the world’s largest refugee population, and most are struggling to take refuge in Europe.
Since 2011, the United States has been accepting about 1,500 Syrian refugees for humanitarian reasons. The Obama administration, however, has announced in September that 10,000 Syrian refugees will be allowed entry next year.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has just announced that the US should pause its refugee program so that ISIS will not be able to use it to get into the US and launch an attack in the country.
This is a stance shared by more than half the nation’s governors who say they oppose letting Syrian refugees into their states, although CNN reported that the final say on this contentious immigration issue will fall to the federal government.
The states protesting the admission of refugees, include Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Michigan Illinois, Maine and New Hampshire. All but one of these 31 states have Republican governors. Republican candidates have also taken this position.
President Obama said the tragedy in Paris should not affect the small intake of Syrian refugees into the United States. “Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values,” the US commander-in-chief said during remarks at the G20 economic summit in Antalya, Turkey.
Obama also ruled out sending more ground troops to fight ISIS in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris.
“It is not just my view, but the view of my closest military and civilian advisers, that that would be a mistake,” Obama said in media reports. “A strategy has to be one that can be sustained,” Obama added.
“Given the fact there are sacrifices involved in any military action, it is best that we don’t shoot first and aim later,” Obama argued. “It’s important for us to get the strategy right, and the strategy that we are pursuing is the right one.”
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
