President Obama said Tuesday night that painting the Islamic State as a grave danger to U.S. economic interests only plays into the terrorist group’s propaganda campaign.
“Over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands,” Obama said during his final State of the Union speech. “Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence. That’s the story ISIL wants to tell; that’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit.”
In December, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said “we’re already in World War III.”
“The fact is this is a new world war and one that won’t look like the last two,” the Republican presidential hopeful said. “And this is one where it’s radical Islamic jihadists every day are trying to kill Americans and disrupt and destroy our way of life.”
President Obama on Tuesday spoke about recent successes in the fight against terrorism, including 10,000 airstrikes that have hit Islamic State leadership and the group’s oil infrastructure as well as a program to train and equip local forces to defeat the terrorist group.
The president also said that the U.S. military is the finest fighting force in the world, and that America is the strongest country “period. It’s not even close.”
He called talk that America is getting weaker while its enemies are growing “political hot air.”
