The international community against terrorism
The international community is trying to mobilize against Jihadism which, from the Middle East to California, has once again taken its blood toll.
Bogdan Matei, 07.12.2015, 15:16
The American President Barack Obama is visibly discouraged by reproaches targeted at him for failing to take the necessary measures to avoid last week’s terrorist carnage in the Californian city of San Bernardino. 14 people died and 21 were wounded in an attack perpetrated by a Muslim couple, who turned radical by accessing online Jihadist media.
In an address delivered to the American nation on Sunday, President Barack Obama said that so far there is no indication that the killers were part of an “organised group or formed part of a broader terrorist cell”. He promised to pursue the terrorists wherever they are. President Obama also said they would destroy the Islamic State terrorist group and any other organization that is trying to do them harm.
He also urged the Muslims themselves to fight the extremist ideologies. Obama has launched an appeal to the groups in the IT industry to join the anti-Jihadist fight by making a more active propaganda on social networks. In another development, the White House leader said the US would not get involved in a ground fight in Iraq and Syria.
He defended his current strategy according to which the air strikes are doubled by ground actions by the Special Forces, reiterating that this would lead to a long-standing victory without America sending a new generation over the Ocean to fight and die on foreign land. The NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said the Alliance ruled out the possibility of deploying ground troops to fight against the Islamic State.
The conflict, he said, is not between the West and the Islamic world, it is a fight against extremism and terrorism. “Muslims are on the front line in this war. Most victims are Muslims, and most of those who fight against the IS are Muslims” the NATO Secretary General concluded. The western public opinion seems more and more skeptical as regards the politicians’ commitments. After last month’s massacre in Paris, which killed 130 people, the French press wrote that President Francois Hollande gained popularity thanks to the trenchant decisions adopted in full crisis and to the diplomatic campaign for the setting up of an international anti-terror coalition.
On Sunday, though, his Socialist party that holds majority in Parliament, was defeated in the first round of regional elections. The Socialists lost half of their territorial mandates, being outnumbered by the far right National Front and by the so-called traditional right of the former President Nicolas Sarkozy. Against the backdrop of migration and of the terrorist risk in Europe, the nationalist discourse of Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Front, has persuaded a large part of French electors.
