The Obama administration has a "fundamental misunderstanding" of what drives radical Islamists, says Ryan Mauro, a national security analyst for the Clarion Project.
"They basically view this al-Qaida and other Islamic terrorist attacks as a response to perceived American aggression," Mauro told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"We could tell that in the State of the Union Address because President [Barack] Obama said that long-term Western military engagements, basically, act as a recruiting tool for al-Qaida because they anger the local population.
"He said that the drone strikes are going to be scaled back because that causes anti-Americanism," Mauro said Tuesday.
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The truth of the matter, Mauro said, is that "this anti-Americanism, and even these grievances that terrorists often tout, actually stem from Islam being frozen in time for the past 800 years."
"Their political views stem from adherence to this medieval sharia law that says that Western governments are inherently corrupt and oppressive, and that's the core problem."
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