Earlier this month, President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address. The State of the Union is given annually to provide citizens with the administration’s view of how well our nation is doing, as well as legislative plans for the next year. Although the president did address many important topics about things going on in our nation, he almost completely ignored a huge one that effects all of us; national security. He failed to address any of the new threats from rapidly growing extremist groups such as ISIS, even though those threats have been acted on as close to home as Canada. The president briefly addressed this issue saying that the government would “continue to hunt down terrorists and dismantle their organizations”.
There are two ways the American Citizen could look at the president’s failure to address the issue of terrorism. Many people, including the journalist who wrote the article see it as the president neglecting our national security and the issue of terrorism completely. Anyone who has watched the news in the past couple months has heard quite a bit about ISIS and what they have done in other countries around the world; Because of this many people were expecting much more information regarding these terrorist groups, from President Obama.
The other, less negative way one could look at this issue is that, possibly, President Obama didn’t want to cause unnecessary panic amongst the citizens and media by dwelling on the subject of terrorism. It is obvious that the president has greater knowledge of our national security issues than the majority of the population, and considering the fact that he is the president, it would be impossible for him to actually ignore these issues, as the article accuses him of. With these things in mind, it is easy to conclude that the president is not actually ignoring our national security, but instead made a decision about how much was necessary to say based on his knowledge of what is going on with these terrorist groups. If the man who knows the most about this problem isn’t overly-concerned, is that not a good sign?
lewy911 • Feb 5, 2019 at 8:59 am
Tonight is the President Trump’s second state of the union speech. I think he will speak about terrorism because he wants to look strong. The people who support him like it when he speaks tough about his enemies. Not all Americans think this is the best way but some will really like it and cheer when the President speaks tonight….others will stay silent. This was his speech in 2018: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-state-union-address/
EMV • Feb 9, 2015 at 1:59 pm
I also think that the president’s approach was mainly not to create any panic. But in a way I also think that it could be because the more people know the more the government will be under pressure, Since they are already aiding the Arabian countries with around 1 billion $.
dr95mike • Feb 9, 2015 at 8:52 am
Our president knows more about what is going then we do. He knows whether we are safe or in danger or whether we should be concerned or not. If he doesn’t bring up negative things that have been going on lately like ISIS then we shouldn’t be too concerned on the matter becayuse that just shows our president has no fear over the matter and is taking care of the issue.
nodrama • Feb 8, 2015 at 10:49 pm
I agree national security is a very important issue, but I believe President Obama didn’t address the issue on terrorism simply not cause chaos within the nation. Reassuring the people safety without going into detail is a good strategy in my eyes, the enemy shall feel the weight of our law when its least expected.
lex • Feb 7, 2015 at 11:10 pm
Like you said, if he isn’t overly concerned then he shouldn’t make the nation concerned. Often the media blow things out of proportion….. though I do hope it’s something they are looking into and finding a solution not only to keep America safe but also strategies to help other countries being attacked by ISIS.