President Obama: America at 'Crossroads' Fighting Terrorism
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“America is at a crossroads,” he said. “We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us.” The president provided his reasoning for a foreign policy shift.
“As our fight enters a new phase, America’s legitimate claim of self-defense cannot be the end of the discussion,” Obama said. “To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance.”
“Now, make no mistake,” the president continued, “our nation is still threatened by terrorists. From Benghazi to Boston, we have been tragically reminded of that truth.” But rather than “the threat that came to our shores on 9/11,” he said, al-Qaeda is “on a path to defeat.”
The president named three future terrorist threat: al-Qaeda and its allies; threats to U.S. installations and businesses overseas; and “homegrown” extremists.
“This is the future of terrorism,” Obama said. “As we shape our response, we have to recognize that the scale of this threat closely resembles the types of attacks we faced before 9/11.”
The announcement came one day after it was found that four Americans had been killed by U.S. drone strikes under the Obama administration. As Reason magazine noted:
In a letter to Congressional leaders obtained by The New York Times, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. disclosed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen.Three of those killed were terrorists who had effectively declared war against the United States and thus were no longer criminals. One was the son of a terrorist who appears to be “collateral damage” in the de facto global war on Islamist terrorists.
The American responsibility for Mr. Awlaki’s death has been widely reported, but the administration had until now refused to confirm or deny it.
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