By KUNA,
Washington : President Barack Obama on Thursday said his national security team understands that he will not put up with any excuses for the United States not doing the very best in this time of tragedy in Haiti.
Speaking on Thursday evening before the US House Democratic caucus at their retreat on Capitol Hill, the President said the Haiti earthquake crisis was “a moment for American leadership.”
“This is a time when the world looks to us and they say, given our capacity, given our unique capacity to project power around the world, that we have to project that not just for our own interests but for the interests of the world as a whole,” Obama said.
The President again stated that he had directed his administration “to take swift and coordinated and aggressive action” in Haiti.
“I have made it clear to my national security team that this has to be a top priority across agencies — Department of Defense, Department of State, USAID (US Agency for International Development)– all the agencies involved — Homeland Security, our FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) director — they are all intimately involved in making sure that we can get in there as quickly as possible to engage in search and rescue, and to provide immediate medical attention, and then long-term help with the recovery,” he said.
Obama said the safety of Americans was the highest priority, “and we are currently airlifting injured Americans out of Haiti. … We will not rest until we have accounted for every single of our fellow Americans that are in harm’s way.” Search and rescue teams are working around the clock to save lives, and more waves of major assets will be arriving, the President said.
Obama noted that earlier in the day he ordered an immediate investment of 100 million dollars to support US relief efforts “in the early days of this crisis.” “Most of this is for the basics — life-saving equipment, food, water, medicine,” he said. “This investment will grow over the year as we help our neighbors embark on what is going to be a long-term recovery.”