Connor Bell- President Obama's Adress Regarding ISIL

“We will degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive terrorism strategy.” This was said by a very serious President Barrack Obama, who from the start was patriotic, stern, and firm in deliverance of his address on how to deal with the terrorist group ISIL. Whether it was calling out ISIL’s name meaning “The Islamic State,” because “Islam does not teach ruthless genocide of it’s own men, women, and children,” or reminding us that ISIL’s growing threat hits close to home by remembering the executions of the two American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, Obama made sincere direct eye contact with the camera throughout his whole speech. Obama looked especially stern when he included that some Americans in the Middle East have actually joined the ISIL side in this fight, and can possibly bring the hardened war skills and hatred mentality back into the United States to cause harm to our nation. But in the midst of addressing these threats, the president assured all of us that ISIL will be dealt with by “strength and resolve;” but this will not be a traditional military strategy with ground forces and air forces. American forces are in Syria, but they are only there for bomb runs and instructing local soldiers, not fighting on the ground on the front lines with the local soldiers. This plan sounded well thought out and Obama named many sources in his cabinet and military generals who could attest to the success of this strategy, with over 150 successful bombings in 1 month. But what the President said best in his entire speech I believe was these lines, “If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.” This was Obama’s most effective message, because it got me fired up to be an American and just made me feel so patriotic. This quote also brings me to the one media truth that I found in Obama’s address, “everything that happened in the past will happen again.” Because hundreds of terrorist groups have threatened, planned to attack and attacked America and it’s citizens, this cycle has shown to repeat itself on numerous occasions in recent years. However, America is always ready to hunt down these people and organizations and punish them to the full extent of American law. That is what we do best because we are America; we stand for freedom, justice, and dignity of all peoples, and its is our job to help people achieve those rights in every single country.