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17:59 GMT
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (KUNA) -- While the US military forces will degrade and ultimately destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy, it will not be America's fight alone, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.
"One of the things we have learned over this last decade is America can make a decisive difference, but I want to be clear: The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission," Obama said in a speech to troops at US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
"They will support Iraqi forces on the ground as they fight for their own country against these terrorists," he affirmed.
"As your Commander in Chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq.
"After a decade of massive ground deployments, it is more effective to use our unique capabilities in support of partners on the ground so they can secure their own countries' futures. And that is the only solution that will succeed over the long term," Obama pointed out.
The United States will use its air power, will train and equip its partners, and advise and assist them, the President said.
"We will lead a broad coalition of countries who have a stake in this fight, because this is not simply America versus ISIL.
"This is the people of the region fighting against ISIL. It is the world rejecting the brutality of ISIL in favor of a better future for our children and our children's children, all of them. But we are not going to do this alone.
"And the one thing we have learned is that when we do things alone, and the people of those countries are not doing it for themselves, as soon as we leave we start getting the same problems. So we have got to do things differently," he went on.
This is why U.S. officials have spent the past several weeks building a coalition to aid in these efforts, "and because we are leading in the right way, more nations are joining us," the President said.
Overall, more than 40 countries so far have offered assistance to the broad campaign against ISIL.
Some nations will assist from the air, and already France and the United Kingdom are flying with the United States over Iraq, with others committed to join the effort, he noted.
Australia and Canada will send military advisers to Iraq, German paratroopers will offer training, and other nations have helped resupply arms and equipment to forces in Iraq, including the Kurdish Peshmerga, Obama said.
"Arab nations have agreed to strengthen their support for Iraq's new government, and to do their part in all the aspects of the fight against ISIL," the President said.
"And our partners will help to cut off ISIL funding and gather intelligence and stem the flow of foreign fighters into and out of the Middle East.
"And meanwhile, nearly 30 nations have helped us with humanitarian relief to help innocent civilians who have been driven from their homes, whether they are Sunni or Shia or Christian or Yazidi or any other religious minority," he pointed out.
"But the point is, we cannot do for the Iraqis what they must do for themselves. We cannot take the place of Arab partners in securing their own region and a better future for their own people.
"We cannot do it for them, but this is an effort that calls on America's unique abilities and responsibilities to lead. In a world that is more crowded and more connected, it is America that has the unique capability to mobilize against an organization like ISIL," he stressed.
Whether in Iraq or in Syria, "these terrorists will learn the same thing that the leaders of al-Qaeda already know: We mean what we say. Our reach is long. If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven. We will find you eventually," he added. (end)
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