Obama Says US Will ‘Degrade and Ultimately Defeat’ ISIS Like Al Qaeda
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ABC News(NEWPORT, Wales) — ISIS, the terrorist group believed to have beheaded American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, “poses a long-term threat to the safety and security of NATO members,” President Obama said Friday.
“We have a critical role to play in rolling back this savage organization,” Obama said at a news conference in Newport, Wales.
The president, in Wales for a NATO summit, joined British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday in pressing the alliance to stand firm against ISIS’ “brutal and poisonous extremism.”
In a London Times column, the leaders panned an “isolationist approach” and vowed that America and Britain “will not be cowed” by ISIS.
“Whether it is regional aggression going unchecked or the prospect that foreign fighters could return from Iraq and Syria to pose a threat in our countries, the problems we face today threaten the security of British and American people,” they wrote.
Obama, who has authorized over 100 airstrikes to aid Iraqi and Kurdish forces combating ISIS in Iraq, last week acknowledged “we don’t have a strategy yet” to confront the militant group in neighboring Syria.
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