From Lalit K Jha
Washington, Sep 13 (PTI) US President Barack Obama has pointed to a “silver lining” in the violence wrought by the Islamic State, saying it has brought “clarity” in the Muslim world in a long time about the need to snuff out this “brand of Islamic extremism”.
At a Democratic Party fund-raiser, Obama said the militant group ISIS, poses the most prominent threat in the Middle East when it comes to terrorism. ISIS, he said has not only taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria but displayed the kind of brutality that even by the standards of terrorists is extraordinary.
“What also is a silver lining in the terrible mayhem that ISIL has wrought throughout the region is that it has focussed attention I think for the first time in a long time in the Muslim world, a great clarity about the need to completely distance from and ultimately snuff out this particular brand of Islamic extremism that really has no place in the 21st century,” Obama said yesterday.
“And that is I think a measure of how we have got to approach these problems because they?re not going to go away immediately,? he said.
“What gives me confidence is that we’re on the right side of history here,” he added.
In his televised speech earlier, Obama had vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State, as he announced a dramatic expansion of the US-led military campaign, including airstrikes for the first time in Syria and the formation of a broad coalition to fight the dreaded militant group so that it would “find no safe haven”.
“We will defeat ISIL, but there are always going to be these threats of terrorism and we’re going to have to make sure that we are creating the structure and the partnerships and the commitment that allows us over the long haul to win this fight,” Obama said.
