Expert talks about why ISIS is striking out against West

SAN FRANCISCO - The killing of innocent people in Paris continues to bring mourners to the French Consulate in San Francisco.

The placing of flowers and candles comes as world leaders debate what the appropriate response to the attacks should be.

France is still reeling from Friday's massacre that ISIS says it was behind.

President Obama called the terror group "the face of evil" and said his strategy against the militants is working.

"Our goals here consistently have to be aggressive and to leave no stone unturned," the President said while answering questions at the G20 summit in Turkey.

President Obama said his plan to cripple the terror group is making progress and that airstrikes by the U.S. led coalition, have been effective in taking out key leaders and the president pushed back against calls for a more aggressive military effort.

"Folks wanna pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan," he said.  "If they think that somehow their advisors are better than the chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them."

While the President stands by his approach, others say the air strikes might be counter-productive.

"I'm not sure they will solve the problem," said Middle East expert and Mills College professor, Fred Lawson.

He believes the Paris killings, the bombing of a Russian passenger jet and other recent attacks, show that ISIS is lashing out at military intervention that has caused the group to lose territory in Syria and Iraq.

"Islamic State was pushing.  Islamic State was advancing, but in recent weeks it's been blocked. It's been rolled back," he said.

Lawson was in San Francisco Monday night, moderating a discussion on ISIS at the World Affairs Council.

He told KTVU the Islamic militants are attempting to deter further military involvement by showing foreign powers they'll pay a price.

"I wouldn't be surprised a strike far outside Syria was an effort to change the playing field and an effort to strike out, in response, to the narrow, to the constrictions that it finds itself in in Syria," said Lawson.

Lawson said this is a shift in the terror group's strategy and that ISIS can no longer be considered a regional threat, but a global threat.