Interview: Obama's SOTU speech highlights growing threat of extremism to U.S.: expert

Despite a carefully-designed tone of confidence and optimism, U.S. President Barack Obama's last State of the Union (SOTU) speech actually revealed the grave situation his country and administration are facing in fighting extremism and terrorism, a Chinese expert said here on Wednesday.

"When Obama was first elected president in 2008, economy and employment were Americans' top concerns. Now with another presidential race around the corner, many voters are also concerned about terrorist threats and domestic security," said Diao Daming, an assistant research fellow at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In Obama's speech to the Congress on Tuesday night, he touted the United States' leading role in combating the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, also known as ISIL.

"For more than a year, America has led a coalition of more than 60 countries to cut off ISIL's financing, disrupt their plots, stop the flow of terrorist fighters, and stamp out their leadership," said the president.

However, Diao noted that the president also stressed a foreign policy focused on the threats of ISIL and al-Qaeda, and once again urged Congress to permit the use of military force against the former.

Obama's call for Congressional authorization is "consistent with his previous stance," which reflects a policy dilemma the president is caught in, added Diao.

On the one hand, many believe that without the use of ground troops it would be impossible for the United States to win a final or decisive victory against the IS. On the other hand, Obama has to be very cautious about "spilling American blood and treasure" in a full blown war after the bitter lessons in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Obama won his first election amid the strong anti-war sentiments of the American people," said Diao. "So while trying to address the security challenge posed by extremist groups like ISIL, he also doesn't want to take the responsibility of sending troops into a war all by himself, especially in an election year."

In his speech, Obama also lamented that "even without ISIL, instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world -- in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan..."

While saying so, the president seemed to forget that the United States actually caused instability in some of those regions or made the situation even worse -- most typically through the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, said Diao.

Pointing to the fact that the Obama administration in October 2015 sent a few U.S. special forces members to Syria to help coordinate and assist counterterrorism operations there, Diao said this may be a "signal for change" in Washington's anti-IS strategy.

"But with President Obama entering his last year in office, I don't think he would make any drastic change in his overall Middle East strategy. So I won't expect any major, ambitious U.S. military move in the region in the near future," he added. Endi