Obama urges U.N. to take action against extremism

UNITED NATIONS – President Obama on Wednesday called on world leaders meeting at the United Nations to “choose hope over fear” by fighting sectarian conflict and extremism, beginning with the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria and Iraq but branching out beyond the Middle East.

In a morning address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Obama urged leaders to support Iraqis and Syrians as they fight to reclaim their communities, as he also argued the merits of the new military campaign he is running against the Islamic State as well as al-Qaida and its offshoots.

“No God condones this terror,” Obama said. “No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.”

Obama also called out a range of aggressive acts around the world – singling out Russian aggression in Ukraine for special derision – as part of a sweeping summons to cooperation over conquest.

He pledged to back Ukraine and its democratic development and to uphold the U.S. commitment to the collective defense of NATO allies. He promised to help stop the outbreak of the Ebola virus ravaging West Africa.

But mainly the president’s remarks were his first chance to put the dramatic events of the previous 48 hours, not to mention a summer of global turmoil, in context. They followed a second night of bombing against Islamic State targets in Syria.

The Pentagon said it hit and damaged eight Islamic State vehicles northwest of Al Qa’im, while bombers and aircraft conducted four strikes on targets near Baghdad and Irbil in Iraq. Videos posted on social media early Wednesday showed Syrian civilians picking through rubble of destroyed homes, and Syrian activists reported civilian casualties.

The world, Obama said, must take concrete steps to address the danger of “religiously motivated fanatics” and the trends that fuel their recruitment.

Rather than portraying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the principal source of broader Middle East problems, as he has in the past, Obama emphasized the need for leaders in Muslim communities to fight the ideology of al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

Extremist ideology is shifting to places in the Middle East and North Africa where there are shortages not just of jobs and prosperity but of food, water and security, he said.

“It is the task of all great religions to accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world,” Obama said. “No children anywhere should be educated to hate other people. There should be no more tolerance of so-called clerics who call upon people to harm innocents because they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim. It is time for a new compact among the civilized peoples of this world to eradicate war at its most fundamental source: the corruption of young minds by violent ideology.”

Later Wednesday, the president pushed for a resolution calling on countries to crack down on citizens drawn to such groups.

The so-called foreign fighters leaving their home countries to join Islamic State and other groups should face tougher penalties and greater restrictions on travel, the resolution says.

The measure is an attempt to showcase some broad agreement among a perpetually deadlocked body and it would have to serve as a stand-in for a broader endorsement of the U.S.-led strikes in Syria. The U.S. did not pursue an authorization for use of force, faced with an all-but-certain Russian veto.

Without that authorization, the administration argued Tuesday that the strikes were consistent with U.N. charter because Iraq was under direct threat from militants in Syria and had sought U.S. assistance.

“We will use our military might in a campaign of airstrikes to roll back ISIL,” said Obama, using a common acronym for the Islamic State group. “We will train and equip forces fighting against these terrorists on the ground. We will work to cut off their financing and to stop the flow of fighters into and out of the region.”

“Those who have joined ISIL should leave the battlefield while they can,” he said. “Those who continue to fight for a hateful cause will find they are increasingly alone. For we will not succumb to threats, and we will demonstrate that the future belongs to those who build, not those who destroy.”