Obama ramps up on Syria
The US president is giving new priority to the threat from terrorists in Syria, while calling for increased military support for opposition forces.
US President Barack Obama this week called for a new global counterterrorism strategy including engaging US allies bordering Syria to contend with refugees and terrorists working across Syria’s borders.
In a May 28 commencement address to cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Obama said the danger from terrorists in Syria is now a direct threat to the United States.
“As the Syrian civil war spills across borders, the capacity of battle-hardened extremist groups to come after us only increases,” he said.
Since January, this column has identified a regionally based counterterrorism effort among Syria’s neighbors and enhanced humanitarian assistance as elements of a new “pulse” of a strategy to address the crisis in Syria.
