Fair enough: Obama still won't use term 'radical Islamic terror,' but it's no big deal if citizens want to

As Twitchy reported, President Obama sat for a town hall meeting on military issues Wednesday night on CNN, where he took questions from audience members.

Host Jake Tapper did kick things off by observing that Obama in 2016 seems much more reluctant to put troops in harm’s way than he did at the beginning of his presidency.

POTUS: i'm not more reluctant to send troops now than in 2009. "It's the nature of the role that has changed, rather than how I assess it."

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 29, 2016

uhhhh…. what?

— DeplorableServant (@jandrews944) September 29, 2016

pic.twitter.com/3iFkMrWiHk

— Robert (@chemrt) September 29, 2016

Syria, home of an Obama Red Line™ or two or three, did get a mention.

Obama: "Any time our men and women in uniform are in war theater, there is risk" #ObamaTownHall https://t.co/yWTlIAsMYz

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 29, 2016

There’s a risk? We’re pretty sure most of our men and women uniform in uniform are keenly aware of that and choose to serve anyway, knowing their choppers wouldn’t be airlifting them to the golf course every weekend.

POTUS says he brings in critics of Syria policy to hear what they think he should do. #ObamaTownHall

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 29, 2016

And who says he’s leading from behind?

Obama says not a week goes by without him reexamining his decisions on Syria #CNN #obamatownhall

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) September 29, 2016

https://twitter.com/FWOTUS/status/781308914499514368

Just a helpless bystander watching the world go by. Powerless to affect events

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) September 29, 2016

The president has answered the question before — obviously not to everyone’s satisfaction — but he repeated his suggestion that using such a term would make it more difficult to solicit assistance from Muslims around the world in the fight against terror. After all, not all Muslims are terrorists, just as not all Christians are terrorists.

“As a Christian, I'm not going to let them claim my religion and say you're killing for Christ” – Obama says

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) September 29, 2016

Obama explains why he won't say "radical Islamic terrorism" https://t.co/5V0DEgfRvu #ObamaTownHall https://t.co/0WCqFpoHdv

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 29, 2016

@CNN
Could not even bring himself to say 'radical Islam' in context of question

— YCG (@YolandaGehring) September 29, 2016

@CNN He won't say "radical Islamic terrorism"; he won't do anything against it. He's busy talking talking talking…

— Covfefe Canada (@covfefecanada) September 29, 2016

@CNN definition of radical Islam in the book of political correctness these days is #lonewolf #mentalillness #PC #MSM #Muslims

— Golden Logie (@comeonfriday) September 29, 2016

@CNN we are not asking why he won't say "Islamic Terroism", we ask him to say "Radical" "Islamic Terroism", big difference

— JILLRN (@jbeans81) September 29, 2016

Sure, but as the president has clarified, why not just say “terrorist?” Then again, limiting the words one’s allowed to use in studying terrorist acts can make it difficult if not impossible to “unpack motives.”