Horowitz: Obama’s Sunday Night Speech; A Good Beginning
Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Speaking to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday night, President Obama conveyed reassurance and resolve as he sought to convince anxious and somewhat skeptical Americans that we have a comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIS --one we are now putting into a higher gear in response to deadly attacks around the world and an ISIS inspired attack that killed 14 Americans in California last week.
“The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it,” remarked President Obama. “We will destroy ISIL and any other organization that tries to harm us. Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values, or giving into fear. That’s what groups like ISIL are hoping for. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless, and by drawing upon every aspect of American power.”
Pushing back on several weeks of fierce attacks by the Republican Presidential candidates who seem to be vying to out do each other in arguing that he is weak and feckless, Obama reminded the electorate of his Administration’s successes in the War on Terror, including decimating Al Qaeda’s leadership through drone strikes and the daring operation that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden.
He announced that, together with our allies, we are stepping up air strikes and working to make them more effective through the expanded use of Special Forces in Syria and Iraq Our Special Forces are now also being used to provide the assistance essential to making the local forces combating ISIS more potent. Further, the President asserted that we are beginning to make some progress in our efforts to achieve a political solution in Syria.
Rejecting the ugly and counterproductive anti-Muslim rhetoric of Donald Trump and some of the other Republican Presidential candidates, Obama argued for the strategic importance of not abandoning our values: “We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like ISIL want. ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death, and they account for a tiny fraction of more than a billion Muslims around the world—including millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology. Moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are Muslim. If we’re to succeed in defeating terrorism we must enlist Muslim communities as some of our strongest allies, rather than push them away through suspicion and hate.”
At the same time, Obama challenged Muslim leaders here at home and around the world to speak out strongly against ISIS and its' perversion of Islam.
Sunday night’s speech was a good beginning. But it needs to be followed-up by more specifics on the actions underway and a persistent, full-throated communications effort.
Given the likelihood of continued attacks, here and abroad, and the fact that victory is clearly not just around the corner, the President in his own as well as in the national interest, simply can not afford to leave an information vacuum for the loud and too often demagogic voices of Trump and some of the others. It is time for the President to make sure his voice is clearly heard in a national conversation, which up until Sunday night, had gone badly off the rails.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, elected official and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at University of Rhode Island.
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