President Barack Obama used his Sunday night address on terrorism to reassure the American people that the San Bernardino shootings last week appear to be an isolated incident, despite one of the killers pledging allegiance to ISIS.

The president firmly dismissed a change in strategy in the war against the extremists that would require combat troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria.

And while the terrorist group is made up of ‘thugs and killers’ and is part of a ‘cult of death’, he again refused to call them ‘radical Islamic terrorists’.

Americans must not take out their grievances with the fanatics on followers of Islam, he said.

‘Muslim Americans are our friends and our neighbors are coworkers, our sports heroes. And yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country,’ the president said, speaking from the Oval Office. ‘We have to remember that.’

He also called on Congress to pass legislation barring individuals on the no-fly list from purchasing guns.

The symbolic use of the Oval Office was an attempt by Obama to set a tone of political gravitas equal to the moment after repeated accusations that he underestimated the threat from ISIS and was too slow to identify the San Bernardino mass murder as domestic terrorism.

In only the third Oval address, Obama declared the killings an ‘act of terrorism’ and said the perpetrators went down the ‘dark path of radicalization’.

But there is ‘no evidence’ they were directed to commit the murders by a specific terrorist group nor is the United States under threat of an imminent attack, he said.

The FBI is still ‘gathering the facts’, Obama declared, but that much is known.

Syed Farook, a 28-year-old American, and Tashfeen Malik, his 29-year-old wife born in Pakistan – both Muslims – carried out the massacre which left 14 dead and 21 injured. The duo were killed in a police stand-off.

Malik is said to have pledged allegiance to ISIS on Facebook at the time of the rampage.

The FBI is investigating the shooting spree as a terrorist attack, it said Friday.

Addressing the United States’ campaign to debilitate ISIS this evening Obama said: ‘We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That too is what groups like ISIL want. ISIL does not speak for Islam.’

ISIS, he said, using an alternative reference to the group, ISIL, makes up a ‘tiny fraction’ of the billions of Muslims around the world – millions of whom ‘reject their hateful ideology’.

‘That does not mean denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities,’ Obama said. ‘This is a real problem that Muslims must confront, without excuse.’

Muslim leaders must vocally reject any twisted interpretation of Islam such as the one pronounced by ISIS, he said.

‘But just as it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization, it is the responsibility of all Americans – of every faith – to reject discrimination,’ Obama argued.

Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tore into Obama on Twitter during his remarks and said afterward, ‘Is that all there is? We need a new President – FAST!’

‘Well, Obama refused to say (he just can’t say it), that we are at WAR with RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS.’

Trump and other Republicans have ripped Obama for months for refusing to use the phrase. The San Bernardino assault rejuvenated the line of attack.

The White House said Friday that it ‘marginalizes Muslims’ to invoke extremists’ religion and indicated that Obama would not be referring to them as such.

TRUMP’S TWEETS DURING SPEECH

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has trumpeted outreach to Muslim communities as a way to prevent radicalization.

However, Alberto Fernandez, who previously worked at the State Department as head of the anti-propaganda unit, said the situation, ‘forces the administration to look at where it does not want to go and is weakest, at jihadist ideology and its dissemination’.

‘The administration seems to be really flailing and tone deaf to this latest challenge,’ he said.

Republicans contended tonight that Obama had his head in the sand on its military policy, as well.

Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, ‘What the president needed to do tonight, but failed to do, is to articulate to the American people a new, clear strategy to defeat ISIS and protect our country and our allies from more terrorist attacks.’

‘Instead, what we heard was more of the same containment strategy,’ he said. ‘The threat of ISIS and its followers is not just something we see across our shores; it’s here in our homeland, and it demands a more robust strategy, stronger U.S. leadership, and the resolve of both the president and the American people to fight—and win—this battle against terrorism.’

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the president’s address was ‘disappointing’ in that it laid out ‘no new plan, just a half-hearted attempt to defend and distract from a failing policy.’

The U.S. will continue its air raids on the group, along with its allies, he said, which have stepped up their participation in the fight since Paris, and its efforts to train and equip rebels and other groups fighting ISIS on the ground.

The government has also increased its intelligence sharing with foreign powers, he said, and is working with the international community to bring stability back to Syria.

Obama put the burden on Congress to take new actions to protect the country from the threat of terrorism.

‘Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security,’ he said.

The president further pressed legislators to ‘make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones that were used in San Bernardino.’

‘I know there are some who reject any gun safety measures. But the fact is that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies – no matter how effective they are – cannot identify every would-be mass shooter, whether that individual is motivated by ISIL or some other hateful ideology,’ he said.

‘What we can do – and must do – is make it harder for them to kill.’

Congress should also approve new screening measures for foreigners who come to America without a visa that allows for a closer look at travel to warzones, he said, and give him formal authority to bomb ISIS, as well.

The White House later indicated that Obama misspoke, though, and meant to say ‘visa program,’ in reference to the fiance visa that Malik came to the United State on, not ‘visa waiver program.’

Attorney General Loretta Lynch told NBC’s Meet the Press that ‘dealing with guns is one way to handle the violence crime issues that we have in this country’.

Farook and Mailk were in possession of four guns, including two modified AR assault weapons, 6,000 rounds of ammunition and a dozen pipe bombs.

The couple may have been planning additional attacks before their shootout with police, but none have been publicly identified.

FBI Director James Comey has said there’s no indication their actions were authorized by an international terrorist group – but  he would not rule it out entirely.

‘The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations,’ Comey said Friday.

The U.S. will continue its air raids on the group, along with its allies, he said, which have stepped up their participation in the fight since Paris, and its efforts to train and equip rebels and other groups fighting ISIS on the ground.

The government has also increased its intelligence sharing with foreign powers, he said, and is working with the international community to bring stability back to Syria.

Obama put the burden on Congress to take new actions to protect the country from the threat of terrorism.

‘Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security,’ he said.

The president further pressed legislators to ‘make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones that were used in San Bernardino.’

‘I know there are some who reject any gun safety measures. But the fact is that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies – no matter how effective they are – cannot identify every would-be mass shooter, whether that individual is motivated by ISIL or some other hateful ideology,’ he said.

‘What we can do – and must do – is make it harder for them to kill.’

Congress should also approve new screening measures for foreigners who come to America without a visa that allows for a closer look at travel to warzones, he said, and give him formal authority to bomb ISIS, as well.

The White House later indicated that Obama misspoke, though, and meant to say ‘visa program,’ in reference to the fiance visa that Malik came to the United State on, not ‘visa waiver program.’

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