President Barack Obama continues to be "politically correct" by insisting the United States is not at war with Islam, but House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said Friday that ISIS will not only say it is at war with the United States, but that it is fighting "for religious reasons."
"I think we are at war with radical Islamists," McCaul said on the "America's Newsroom" program on Fox News. "I think it is important to define the enemy to defeat the enemy."
But Obama is "trying not to offend the Muslim world," the Texas lawmaker said.
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On Thursday, Obama concluded a
three-day conference on combating violent extremism, making comments that lead McCaul and others to say the president does not recognize the threat ISIS and radical terrorists pose.
In his closing speech, Obama acknowledged the history between the Middle East and the West is complicated, but said "the notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie."
Further, he said: "Muslim communities, including scholars and clerics, therefore have a responsibility to push back not just on twisted interpretations of Islam, but also on the lie that we are somehow engaged in a clash of civilizations."
"It is interesting to note at this conference, it was a bit of a psychotherapy session without substance or solutions coming out of it," McCaul said. "The FBI wasn't invited to speak and the military took a back seat. So I agree it is a multifaceted solution but the military is a component of this. All they talked about is better education and economic assistance without dealing with the barbarians and we need to defeat and destroy them."
McCaul said he believes the terror attacks in Paris in January were the catalyst behind Obama's conference. He said he has put "lot of pressure on the [Obama] administration on foreign fighter investigations and also the home-grown violent extremists we see pop up like the Boston bombing."
And even though the administration would "love to see ISIS go away tomorrow," the extremists are "real, killing, beheading, and lighting people on fire and this has to be dealt with, not just by American leadership, but the Arab leaders need to stand up as well."
McCaul has written to the White House several times about the issue, and said he has heard nothing back but an idea about bringing in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, which he believes is dangerous.
"We have groups stating this puts Americans at a greater risk," said McCaul. "And as chairman of Homeland Security, my job is to protect people."
Further, he noted that the FBI has testified in front of his committee that it does not have the "footprint on the ground" to properly vet such refugees.
"If you don't have the intelligence and databases to vet them how can you safely bring them into the United States?" said McCaul. "In the Iraq war, we brought in refugees and two were terrorists and killed Americans, and they were plotting to send attack items to Iraq which is modern day ISIS. So we need to stop this."
Special: ISIS: Everything you need to know about the rise of the militant group — Click Here
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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