Obama: Airstrikes Against ISIS Will Continue After Belgium Bombings

Insists No Possible Justification for Killing Innocent People

Speaking to ESPN during a Tampa Bay Rays exhibition game in Havana today, President Obama insisted that US and coalition airstrikes against ISIS targets around the world would continue unchanged in the wake of today’s Brussels bombings.

Obama insisted the US is going to “continue pounding ISIS and we’re going to go after them,” adding that he rejects “the notion that any political agenda would justify the killing of innocent people,” a particularly awkward comment given the number of innocent civilians killed in US airstrikes.

In all likelihood, the Brussels attacks will be used as a pretext for further escalation of the ISIS war, much as the November Paris bombings were quickly parlayed by the Hollande government into approval for broad new emergency powers and deployments of more warplanes to the region.

That sort of decision is likely to come out of the European Union, however, as the US is continuing apace with its own escalations and doesn’t really need any new pretexts. In the meantime, the Obama Administration seems to be selling the idea that they’re staying the course.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.