Obama: ‘There are no existential threats’, not even the Islamic State
These are words that are likely to be recalled bitterly in the coming years.
American sailors captured by Iran. Photo: IRIB News.
“President Obama: ‘There Are No Existential Threats’ to the United States,” by Alex Griswold, Mediaite, January 12th, 2016:
In an interview with NBC’s Today on the morning of his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama told interviewer Matt Lauer that the United States didn’t face a single existential threat as his presidency approached its end.
“It is sometimes important for people to step back and measure how far we’ve come,” Obama argued. “The economy right now is better than any other economy in the world by a significant margin. We remain the strongest nation on earth by far and there are no existential threats facing us.”
“If we make some good choices now, whoever the next president is, whoever is controlling the next Congress there, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t own the 21st century,” he said.
Lauer went on to ask Obama specifically about the threat posed by ISIS and other terror groups. “Your daughters are young ladies. When they get to be your age, President Obama, do you believe in your heart that they will be living in a world that is dealing with the threat of radical Islam on a daily basis?”
“I am absolutely confident we will have defeated ISIL,” Obama responded. “I don’t think we have to wait until they are 54 for that to happen.”
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Iranian military seizes two U.S. Navy boats, holds ten American sailors