Republicans have slammed President Barack Obama for pushing to move the government away from a 'war footing and refine and recalibrate counterterrorism strategy'.
Republicans such as Senator Lindsey Graham said Obama is projecting weakness at a time when the United States needs to show resolve against terror networks like Al Qaeda.
According to the New York Post, the South Carolina Republican said that at a time when the US needs to resolve the most, the country is sounding retreat.
Obama has given a major speech in which he said Al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and signaling that he is reluctant to commit troops overseas to conflicts like Syria or other countries struggling with instability in the uncertain aftermath of the Arab Spring, the report said.
Obama is trying to recast the image of terrorists from enemy warriors to cowardly thugs and move the United States away a state of perpetual war.
According to the report, Graham said Obama is displaying a lack of resolve despite a slew of concerns in the Middle East, including civil war and chemical weapons in Syria and threats to Israel from Syria's unrest and Iran's nuclear programme.