In a December 2015 interview with CBS News, President Obama defended his strategy to defeat ISIS by saying: “They can kill some innocent people, but that’s not a victory for them if we respond appropriately.”
The interview took place less than three weeks after ISIS killed 130 people and wounded more than 360 others in the Paris attacks.
“I said this repeatedly overseas, ISIL only wins if we react out of fear and start changing how we live, violating our values, they can’t win on the battlefield,” President Obama said. “They can kill some innocent people, but that’s not a victory for them if we respond appropriately.”
Earlier in the interview, he claimed that America “has never been more protected” from terrorism.”
“ISIL is not going to pose an existential threat to us. They are a dangerous organization like al Qaeda was, but we have hardened our defenses, our homeland has never been more protected by more effective intelligence and law enforcement professionals at every level than they are now,” Obama said.
The San Bernardino terrorist attack took place just hours after Obama finished taping the interview with CBS.
Similarly, the president confidently expressed his belief that ISIS was contained just hours before the terrorist organization launched their attacks in Paris.
“From the start, our goal has been first to contain and we have contained them,” he said at the time.
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