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Obama Calls Paris Massacre ‘an Attack on the Civilized World’ ​Supporting France, Obama Sticks to Fighting ISIS From the Air
(about 2 hours later)
ANTALYA, Turkey — President Obama on Sunday sought to stoke in American allies a new sense of urgency in the fight against the Islamic State, even as his top aides made clear that Friday’s horrific attacks in Paris would not alter the president’s reluctance to substantially escalate his campaign against the terror group. ANTALYA, Turkey — For President Obama, the short-term response to the terrorist attacks in Paris was straightforward and relatively easy: The American military and intelligence agencies provided information to help French warplanes bomb Islamic State targets on Sunday in the group’s stronghold in northern Syria.
Meeting with world leaders in Turkey less than 48 hours after gunmen and suicide bombers killed at least 129 people in simultaneous attacks across Paris, Mr. Obama vowed to stand with the French authorities as they hunt down the terrorists, calling the spasms of violence in the center of the city “an attack on the civilized world.” Determining the long-term response, however, may be exponentially harder. Even as Mr. Obama searched for ways to step up the war against the terrorist group, which has expanded its operations beyond its territory in Iraq and Syria, senior White House officials on Sunday again ruled out the introduction of substantial numbers of American ground troops.
White House officials said Mr. Obama agreed wholeheartedly with President François Hollande of France that the mass killings in Paris were an “act of war.” They promised that the United States would intensify the military campaign against the Islamic State even as they accelerated their pursuit of a diplomatic solution to the civil war raging inside Syria. The French airstrikes may have been a potent show of defiance, but it was not clear that they represented a major shift in the American coalition’s overall strategy.
Yet the highly emotional statements from France — in which Mr. Hollande promised to be “merciless” and the prime minister, Manuel Valls, vowed to “annihilate the enemies of the republic” — appeared to do little to fundamentally change how Mr. Obama or his national security team views the high costs of significantly widening the role of the United States military in Iraq and Syria. Before the attacks in Paris on Friday, the French confined the majority of their airstrikes against the Islamic State to targets in Iraq. With the strikes on Sunday, President François Hollande, who called the Paris attacks an “act of war” and vowed to be “merciless” against those responsible, made it clear that he would no longer be deterred by the border between Iraq and Syria.
While Mr. Obama was already moving to intensify bombing and the targeting of Islamic State leaders, he still does not appear ready to question the underlying, incremental approach. But the Americans have been bombing on both sides of the border for more than a year with mixed results, and the recent entry of Russia, with its own air power, into the war in Syria has not changed the overall picture. The emotional statements from France appeared to do little to fundamentally change Mr. Obama’s view of the high cost of drastically expanding the role of the American military in Iraq and Syria.
Senior national security advisers said the president remained steadfastly opposed to a large-scale ground operation in Iraq and Syria. And even as he met with world leaders, aides insisted that the Americans had not underestimated the ability of the Islamic State to project its terror beyond that region. And so, senior administration officials said, Mr. Obama is looking to do more of what he has already been doing and to do it better. The possibilities, they said, include more airstrikes, Special Operations raids, assistance to local allies and attacks against Islamic State targets outside Syria and Iraq, like the strike in Libya over the weekend.
In briefings with reporters in Turkey and in a series of back-to-back appearances on Sunday morning television programs, Benjamin J. Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser, said the United States would work with France and other allies to “intensify their efforts” against the Islamic State — but only within limits. “We don’t believe U.S. troops are the answer to the problem,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Sunday at the Group of 20 meetings here in Turkey, where Mr. Obama consulted with other world leaders. “The further introduction of U.S. troops to fully re-engage in ground combat in the Middle East is not the way to deal with this challenge.”
“We don’t believe U.S. troops are the answer to the problem,” Mr. Rhodes told reporters at the Group of 20 meetings here. “The further introduction of U.S. troops to fully re-engage in ground combat in the Middle East is not the way to deal with this challenge.” The summit meeting here came less than 48 hours after gunmen and suicide bombers killed at least 129 people in simultaneous attacks across Paris, even as other challenges roiled international relations. Given its setting, just a few hundred miles from Syria, the meeting was already likely to focus on the Islamic State as well as the related refugee crisis that has engulfed Europe. Moreover, Mr. Obama was still grappling with Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and keeping an eye on the South China Sea, where China is at odds with its neighbors.
Mr. Obama’s arrival at the G-20 summit meeting Sunday morning forced him and his advisers to spend the day carefully balancing two competing interests: their desire to support France at an extraordinarily difficult moment, while standing firm in their defense of Mr. Obama’s basic strategy for waging war against terrorists. The Paris attacks clearly upended not only the summit meeting but also the administration’s view of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, and the range of its threat. Shortly before the shootings and explosions in the French capital, Mr. Obama declared that the Islamic State had been contained in Iraq and Syria.
Aides said the president had discussed the need for more cooperation with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, especially along the border between Turkey and Syria. And the last-minute addition of a meeting between Mr. Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia was described as an effort to urge more from the kingdom. During a meeting with his national security team on Saturday before leaving for Turkey, Mr. Obama gave orders to the nation’s intelligence agencies to overhaul their assessment of the group, given the attacks.
White House officials on Sunday, however, rejected any notion that the administration had underestimated the threat posed by the Islamic State several years ago. And they defended Mr. Obama’s comment last week that the terrorist group had been “contained” in recent months by the United States and its coalition in Iraq and Syria. “This was a game changer,” said a senior intelligence official who, like other American officials, requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “We have to look hard at what happened in Paris, at the trajectory of the group and the potential threat it poses to the entire international community.”
Mr. Obama made that comment in an interview with ABC News just hours before the Paris attacks, which seemed to dramatically demonstrate that the group was not contained within the borders of Syria and Iraq. Intelligence analysts working over the weekend had already put aside Mr. Obama’s comment about the Islamic State being contained.
“A year ago, we saw them on the march in both Iraq and Syria, taking more and more population centers,” Mr. Rhodes said on “This Week” on ABC News. “The fact is we have been able to stop that geographic advance and take back significant amounts of territory in both northern Iraq and northern Syria.” “This clearly shows ISIS is looking at an international level and is capable of carrying out large-scale attacks outside Iraq and Syria,” the intelligence official said. “There will be a greater sense of urgency in how we go about trying to combat these kinds of attacks. Paris shows that they can attack soft targets on any day, anywhere, including in any major American city.”
Mr. Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia again broached their longstanding disagreement about how to confront the Islamic State and resolve the civil war in Syria. The two men spoke for 35 minutes on a pair of couches during a reception on the gathering’s first day. Under fire back home over the “contained” comment, White House officials rejected any suggestion that the administration had underestimated the threat posed by the Islamic State and said the president had been referring to success in halting territorial gains in Iraq and Syria.
American officials described the meeting as “constructive” and emphasized that the two leaders agreed on the need for a cease-fire in Syria and a political transition to a new government. But Russian officials described the meeting in less glowing terms, saying Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin remained at odds about how to achieve those goals. “A year ago, we saw them on the march in both Iraq and Syria, taking more and more population centers,” Mr. Rhodes said on “This Week” on ABC. “The fact is, we have been able to stop that geographic advance and take back significant amounts of territory in both northern Iraq and northern Syria.”
White House officials said the Paris attacks had prompted a higher level of cooperation with French officials in the fight against the Islamic State. Mr. Rhodes said France now had a two-star general stationed in the headquarters of United States Central Command, which is coordinating the American airstrikes in Syria and Iraq. In his only public comments here on Sunday, Mr. Obama vowed to stand with the French authorities, calling the spasms of violence in the center of Paris “an attack on the civilized world.”
“The French have been with us in Iraq and Syria and conducting airstrikes,” he said on ABC. “I think we want to continue to intensify that coordination.” White House officials said Mr. Obama agreed with Mr. Hollande that the mass killings in Paris were an “act of war,” and they promised that the United States would deepen cooperation with French officials. Mr. Rhodes said a French two-star general was now stationed in the headquarters of United States Central Command, which is coordinating the American airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.
But Mr. Rhodes and other officials were less clear about what that higher intensity would include. And while no one in the French government has yet said publicly that France would take the next logical step and request other NATO member countries to defend it under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, many experts were talking about the need for joint action. But officials were less clear about how far that cooperation would go. And while no one in the French government has yet said that France will take the next logical step and ask other NATO member countries to defend it under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, many experts on international security talked about the need for joint action. Mr. Hollande’s use of the phrase “act of war” complicated Mr. Obama’s deliberations.
A senior American defense official said the military already had a range of options prepared after 18 months of near continual debate within the administration about how to handle the Islamic State. The options range from substantive ground operations — which no one appears to be seriously considering at this point — to ramping up the air war or increasing the number of special operations troops already committed to Syria by the administration. Aides said the president had discussed the need for more cooperation with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, especially along Turkey’s border with Syria. And the last-minute addition of a meeting here between Mr. Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia was described as an effort to urge more support from the Saudis.
The Pentagon is also working out ways to accommodate a more robust French role in the air campaign, the official said, though it was not yet certain what course of action France had decided upon. The administration also wants to make sure it has thought through the impact that any new military action would have on the diplomatic efforts to open a peace process that Secretary of State John Kerry is leading. Mr. Obama also met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, again broaching their longstanding disagreement about how to confront the Islamic State and resolve the civil war in Syria. The two spoke for 35 minutes at a reception, their first meeting since Russian planes began bombing targets inside Syria in an effort to bolster the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who Mr. Obama has said must step down.
“It’s a matter of making sure it’s all been thought out,” added the defense official, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters. “If it looks like a shift in our posture would be beneficial in terms of diplomacy, or would have a negative impact, that is something that the administration wants to consider.” American officials described the meeting as “constructive,” emphasizing that the two leaders agreed on the need for a cease-fire in Syria and a political transition to a new government. But Russian officials described the meeting in less glowing terms, saying that Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin remained at odds about how to achieve those goals.
A senior administration official involved in the debate over how to counter the Islamic State said in a conversation over the weekend that while the president had declared the mission to “degrade and defeat” the Islamic State, “what we had in essence was a containment policy.” It was based on Mr. Obama’s longtime belief that any effort to counter the Islamic State’s ideology had to be led by Sunni Muslim states, with backup from the United States for the “unique capabilities” it can offer: mostly air support and intelligence. “On tactics, the two sides are still diverging,” Yuri Ushakov, Mr. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told reporters.
Yet Mr. Obama’s strategy was also based on intelligence assessments that the Islamic State was overextended, that it was vulnerable to a cutoff in its oil and black-market revenues, and that in the long war against extremism there was still time to bolster the most capable local forces and bring Arab states to the fight. The intricate diplomatic picture complicated the administration’s options. With Russia and Iran also fighting the Islamic State but having different regional interests from the United States, American officials said they wanted to be sure that military action did not impair the shared diplomatic goal of ending the violence in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Vienna over the weekend seeking a consensus to try to stop the Syrian civil war, which helped give rise to the Islamic State.
The official said that “if Paris changes anything, it’s the recognition that we can’t wait for those two events to happen, if they ever happen.” “It’s a matter of making sure it’s all been thought out,” a senior Defense Department official said. “If it looks like a shift in our posture would be beneficial in terms of diplomacy, or would have a negative impact, that is something that the administration wants to consider.”
While the White House tried to distance itself from the idea of containment, a senior administration official said, “What we had in essence was a containment policy” based on the belief that efforts to counter the Islamic State’s ideology had to be led by Sunni Muslim states, with backup from the United States.
Yet Mr. Obama’s strategy was also based on intelligence assessments that the Islamic State was overextended and vulnerable to a cutoff in its oil and black-market revenues — and that, in the long war against extremism, there was still time to bolster the most capable local forces and bring Arab states to the fight.