WASHINGTON: The Islamic State group does not pose an existential threat to the United States, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday, warning that such talk only emboldens America's enemies.
In his final State of the Union address, Obama attempted to reset the tone of the national security debate, which has grown more extreme and fearful as the battle to succeed him heats up.
He called on Congress to help him finally close the war or terror detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which he branded a gift to extremist propagandists seeking to stir anti-American sentiment.
And he declared the US military to be the best funded and best trained fighting force in the history of the world, more than capable of seeing off the militant threat.
"But as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands," Obama warned a Congress dominated by his Republican opponents.
"Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence."
US forces are leading an international coalition bombing the IS group from the air over their heartland in Iraq and Syria, and training Iraqi ground forces.
Obama has vowed to dispatch special forces to guide Syrian Arab and Kurdish militias closing in on the capital of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Raqa.
And US intelligence is helping its allies locate and neutralize extremists plotting attacks in Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan and European cities.
But Obama has vowed not to follow his predecessor George W. Bush in committing thousands of ground troops to open-ended conflict in the Middle East -- and Islamic State attacks have continued.
Last month, a gun attack by a radicalized couple in San Bernadino, California that left 14 dead particularly shocked the American public.
The crowded Republican field jostling for the chance to run for the White House has seized on this and the uncertain progress in the Middle East to brand Obama weak.
"Today, I met with law enforcement officials from San Bernardino, and I can tell you what they need: actions, not words, to secure our country," said Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
"Yet the White House is more focused on releasing battle-hardened extremists from Guantanamo Bay than keeping terrorists from opening up new safe havens across the world," he continued.
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