President Barack Obama got down to business Wednesday afternoon, flooring it to the golf course after giving a speedy statement on the beheading of an American journalist and a threat from the Islamic State to spill more blood.
Obama sported a grin the size of Mount Rushmore as he sat behind the wheel of a golf cart in Martha’s Vineyard, where he’s currently vacationing.
Wearing casual khakis and a white Nike polo, the president enjoyed laughs, and even a fist pound, with ex-NBAer Alonzo Mourning and businessmen Glenn Hutchins and Cyrus Walker.
The president didn’t mention Steven Joel Sotloff, a Time reporter who was seen on the horrific video released Tuesday and could be the next victim of the malicious Islamic State militants who vowed more killings if American airstrikes in the Iraq region didn’t stop.
More than a dozen US airstrikes were mounted by drones and fighter jets in the past 24 hours in Iraq, including near the strategic Mosul dam, where jihadists apparently were meeting, The Telegraph reported.
The National Security Council on Wednesday morning verified the video of freelance journalist James Wright Foley being beheaded, saying, “We have reached the judgment that this video is authentic.”
In the video, titled “A Message to America,” the jihadists vow to kill another American reporter, Sotloff, if the US continues to target the region. Obama made no mention of Sotloff, or any specifics on what he is going to do to protect Americans in Islamic State custody.
News of Foley’s death shook the international community as the jihadists promised to continue killing people if their demands were not met.
“We believe those who kill journalists or hold them hostage should be brought to justice,” said Gary Pruitt, the CEO of the Associated Press.
“We believe the assassination of a journalist in wartime should be considered an international crime of war,” Pruitt added. “The murder of a journalist with impunity is a threat to a free press and democracy around the world.”
Obama belittled the Islamic State’s platform, saying, “No faith teaches people to massacre innocents.”
“Their ideology is bankrupt,” he added. “People like this ultimately fail. They fail because the future is won by those who build and not destroy.”
