CNN on Obama Speech: ‘I Don’t Think It’s the Speech the People in Paris Wanted To Hear’

‘I don’t think this is the response that people here are looking for’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

 

COOPER: “I want to bring in Paul Cruickshank. What did you take from this?"

CRUICKSHANK: "Well, no change in strategy. The strategy is not working because of the terrible terrorism we've seen in Paris, in Beirut, in Ankara, the Metro-jet that went down, likely terrorism, likely ISIS. Sure, they've shrunk the territory they control a little bit in Syria and Iraq, but this is a group now using those countries as a platform for international terrorism. The richest terrorist group in the history, tens of millions, if not more in the bank. They've got up to 6,000 European recruits coming in, joining the various groups, and ISIS. Training camps on a scale bigger than we saw in Afghanistan before 9/11. And all of that requires more urgency, I think, for all international ears. Not just the United States. Clearly the United States needs to take a leadership role. I don't think it's the speech people in Paris wanted to hear. From a geographic point of view, ISIS is expanding in other countries. If you look at Egypt, sinai pen peninsula, in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan, expanding in north Africa, they're expanding to some degree in Somalia. And so all of this is a huge concern, and so the idea that you can really contain a terrorist group doesn't really make sense because you cannot deter terrorist groups like you can deter rogue nation states, because they have this desire, which they believe comes from god, to launch international terrorism, attack the West. And I don't think this is the response that people here are looking for."

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