By NNN-APP,
New York : President Barack Obama told graduating cadets at the West Point military academy Saturday the United faces a “tough fight” against insurgents in Afghanistan, and he sought closer coordination with Pakistani intelligence agencies to uncover terror plots.
“We need intelligence agencies that work seamlessly with their counterparts to unravel plots that run from mountains of Pakistan to the streets of our cities; law enforcement that can strengthen judicial systems abroad and protect us at home; and first responders who can act swiftly in the event of earthquakes, storms and disease,” he said in an address to the academy’s commencement ceremony.
Obama said that al-Qaeda was misinterpreting Islam, saying, “Extremists want a war between America and Islam, but Muslims are a part of our national life, including those who serve in our Army. Adversaries want to divide us, but we are united by our support for you, soldiers who send a clear message that this country is both the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
The president told the 1,300 graduates that the US faces “difficult days ahead”, and that the threat posed by al-Qaeda operatives across the globe “will not go away soon.”
“This time of war began in Afghanistan, a place that may seem as far from this peaceful bend in the Hudson River as anywhere on Earth,” Obama said, referring to a conflict that started after the al Qaeda terror network attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.
“The war began only because our own cities and civilians were attacked by violent extremists who plotted from that distant place, and it continues only because that plotting persists to this day.”
While the United States battled in Afghanistan, the US military launched an invasion of Iraq in 2003, toppling the Saddam Hussein regime and battling insurgents for years until that war began to wind down in the last couple of years.
But the Afghan conflict persists as the United States and its allies battle tenacious militants from the Taliban militant movement.
Obama said as the Iraq war ends, America is “pressing forward in Afghanistan” and faces a “tough fight” against a escalating insurgency.
“From Marja to Kandahar, that is what the Taliban has done through assassination, indiscriminate killing and intimidation,” Obama said, referring to the main militant and two southern Afghan battlegrounds.
“And any country that has known decades of war will be tested in finding political solutions to its problems, and providing governance that can sustain progress and serve the needs of its people. “Obama said that even though nature of the war has changed in the past nine years, it remains just as important as it was after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
He said the United States has helped bring hope and sovereign government to Afghanistan, but “there will be difficult days ahead.”
“We toppled the Taliban regime; now we must break the momentum of a Taliban insurgency and train Afghan security forces,” he said.
“We will adapt, we will persist, and I have no doubt that together with our Afghan and international partners, we will succeed in Afghanistan.”
As for al Qaeda’s activities, Obama defended the “campaign to disrupt, dismantle and to defeat al Qaeda,” saying it’s an “international effort that is necessary and just.
“While he said there has been “more success in eliminating al Qaeda leaders in recent months than in recent years,” the group will continue its recruitment efforts.
“We see that in bombs that go off in Kabul and Karachi.
“We see it in attempts to blow up an airliner over Detroit or an SUV in Times Square, even as these failed attacks show that pressure on networks like al Qaeda is forcing them to rely on terrorists with less time and space to train,” he said.
“We see it in al Qaeda’s gross distortion of Islam, their disrespect for human life, and their attempts to prey upon fear and hatred and prejudice.”
Obama dismissed al-Qaeda and its affiliates as “small men on the wrong side of history,” but acknowledged that the threat they pose “will not go away soon.”
“This is a different kind of war,” he said. “There will be no simple moment of surrender to mark the journey’s end. No armistice or banner headline.”
The president said America’s “strength and resilience” will counter people attempting to sow fear. In an oblique reference to the failed car bombing attempt last month in New York’s Times Square, Obama said the recent attempts show al-Qaeda is forced to rely on terrorists with less time to train.
And while Al-Qaeda and its affiliates continue to target America, the president said Americans have not bowed to their threats.
The terrorists want to scare us, he said, but New Yorkers go about their lives unafraid.