Obama to Daesh: We are not afraid
President Barack Obama says the United States will “vanquish” Daesh (ISIL), but people should tell the terrorist group that “we are not afraid.”
Obama made the remarks on Sunday while speaking on the sidelines of the 27th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the wake of last week’s Paris attacks that killed at least 130 people and injured hundreds more.
"The American people in the past have confronted some very real, enormous threats. And we beat them. We vanquished them," the US president said. "This will be no different."
Obama said the US and its allies will take the fight to Daesh in Syria and Iraq, but people back home should refuse to get scared by the group.
"In addition to hunting down terrorists, in addition to effective intelligence, in addition to missile strikes and in addition to cutting off financing,” he said, "the most powerful tool we have to fight ISIL is to say that we're not afraid."
"They cannot strike a mortal blow against France or the United States or a country like Malaysia, but they can make people fearful," Obama said.
ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, have claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in France.
Daesh now controls parts of Syria and Iraq. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.
Obama on Sunday said the perpetrators of the Paris attacks were not "masterminds," but rather "a bunch of killers with good social media."
"It's absolutely vital for every country, every leader, to send a signal that the viciousness of a handful of killers does not stop the world from doing vital business," he said.
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