43 days and counting Characterizing the military s mission as a fight against  violent extremism,  Obama insisted that soldiers need to rise up against Trump if they feel he is pushing policies that are ill considered.Obama told the troops,  each of us has the universal right to speak your minds and to protest against authority; to live in a society that s open and free; that can criticize our president without retribution. Obama went on to insist that a proper U.S. policy against  violent extremism  is a  long term  policy. So rather than offer false promises that we can eliminate terrorism by dropping more bombs or deploying more and more troops or fencing ourselves off from the rest of the world,  Obama said,  we have to take a long view of the terrorist threat. And we have to pursue a smart strategy that can be sustained. In the time remaining, let me just suggest what I think should guide this approach. In addressing the war-torn Middle East, Obama insisted that global warming forms a large part of that conflict.  A changing climate is increasing competition for food and water,  which, he claimed, drives the conflict in Syria and other nearby nations.Obama also blamed the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for  violent extremism  in the United States. Somebody who is trying to kill and willing to be killed is dangerous, particularly when we live in a country where it s very easy for that person to buy a very powerful weapon,  Obama insisted. The president also defended Islam against the charge of extremism:We are fighting terrorists who claim to fight on behalf of Islam. But they do not speak for over a billion Muslims around the world, and they do not speak for American Muslims including many who wear the uniform of the United States of America s military. If we stigmatize good patriotic Muslims, that just feeds the terrorists  narrative. It fuels the same false grievances they they use to motivate people to kill. If we act like this is a war between the United States and Islam, we re not gonna lose more Americans to terrorist attacks, but we ll also lose the sight of the very principles we claim to defend.As to the rise of ISIS, Obama insisted it was not given aide by his actions of pulling out of Iraq in 2011 but was instead given succor by the policies of George W. Bush. By 2011, Iraqis wanted our military presence to end, and they were unwilling to sign a new status of forces agreement to protect our troops from prosecution if they were trying to defend themselves in Iraq,  Obama proclaimed.  In addition, maintaining American troops in Iraq at the time could not have reversed the forces that contributed to ISIL s rise.   Breitbart 