Obama on Hostages: ‘We All Bleed When We Lose An American Life’
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JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama on Friday reiterated his commitment to reviewing the American operation that killed two civilian hostages to prevent the future loss of innocent lives.
“We are going to review what happened. We are going to identity the lessons that can be learned and any improvements and changes that can be made,” the president told employees at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “I know those of you who are here share our determination to continue doing everything we can to prevent the loss of innocent lives.”
Pausing for reflection, the president spoke briefly about the difficulty of these moments.
“I was asked by somebody how do you absorb news like that that we received the other day and I told the truth, ‘it’s hard,’” he said. “But the one thing I wanted everybody to know, because I know you, because I work with you, because I know the quality of this team, is that we all bleed when we lose an American life. We all grieve when any innocent life is taken.”
“We understand the solemn responsibilities that are given to us and our first job is to make sure that we protect the American people,” he continued. “But there is not a person that I talk to that’s involved in the intelligence community that also doesn’t understand that we have to do so while upholding our values and our ideals and our laws and our constitutions and our commitment to democracy.”
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