had anticipated before. we were always told that if isis did something in the united states, it was through a lone wolf. it was not the way al qaeda or al qaeda in the arabian peninsula based in yemen have operated. but this is a new game. of course, there was much made over the weekend that the president had just said isis was contained. exa ktly. that was kind of streamlined yesterday flu he meant geographically. but there s no way this jumps over any definition of contained. they say that he meant contained or constrained within iraq and syria being rolled back geographically. but that if you look really at what he said, that doesn t seem to be what he said. when he talked about containment. i was noting that in his opening statement today he went back to his original configuration, the language that he had used over the last couple of years, which was to degrade and ultimately
to protect people in the region who are getting killed and to protect our allies in people like france. i m too busy for that. jim acosta. thank you very much, mr. president. i wanted to go back to something that you said to margaret earlier when you said that you have not underestimated isis abilities. this is an organization that you once described as a jv team that evolved into a force that is now occupied territory in iraq and syria, and is now able to use that safe haven to launch attacks in other parts of the world. how is that not underestimating their capabilities and how is that contained, quite frankly? and i think a lot of americans have this frustration that they see that the united states has the greatest military in the world, it has the backing of nearly every other country in the world when it comes to taking on isis, and i guess the question is if you ll forgive
constant effort at vigilance and requires extra toeordinary coordination. part of the reason it is important what we do in iraq and syria is that the narrative that isil developed of creating this caliphate makes it more attractive to potential recruits. so when i said that we are containing their spread in iraq and syria, in fact they control less territory than they did last year. and the more we shrink that territory, the less they can pretend that they are somehow a functioning state and the more it becomes apparent that they are simply a network of killers who are brutalizing local populations. that allows us to reduce the flow of foreign fighters, which
it, is actually a brilliant piece of propaganda. so did something change in the recent past? i know that isis has always kind of focused its cal fiphate on syria and iraq. what schangchanged? there s a lot of talk of isis having this strategic shift towards fans. but if you look back at their operation sense their inception back in 2006 and then in 2010 they started carrying out mass suicide attacks in iraq, then they shifted out to syria. they re coming in the heels of their parent organization al qaeda. they have the exact same amount of experience and manpower but now they re stretching
that they were either under orders from syria or indeed had themselves being trained in syria. a lot of the eyewitness testimony speaks of young men who went through the restaurants and theaters very calmly firing, then reloading as if they had been militarily trained. of course, a manhunt is still under way for other accomplices. one has been named. many have not been named. for example, it is thought that somebody professional made the suicide belts which were identical and very professional made. there was a bombmaker that the french police are hunting as well. and also here in paris, there is a very somber, almost frightened air because this morning the french prime minister said that we have to be prepared for more attacks. more attacks, he said, are being planned on france from syria and within europe. so french people heave really