The United States will not retreat from its involvement abroad, President Barack Obama said Wednesday amid days of threats that forced the closure of almost two dozen diplomatic facilities abroad.
As the administration and senior lawmakers warn of some of the most serious threats against U.S. interests since
9/11, Obama sought to project resilience.
"The United States is never going to retreat from the world," the president told a crowd of Marines at Camp Pendleton in California. "We
don't get terrorized."
Obama and his national security team have in recent days warned of a significant in the threat to U.S. embassies, particularly those in northern Africa and the Middle East. The U.S. evacuated personnel from its compound in Yemen — the country thought to be the epicenter of the current threat, and launched drone strikes against suspected militants in Yemen as well.
Even as Obama said that the core leadership of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan had been "hammered" by more than a decade of
U.S. military involvement in the region, he noted that other parts of the terrorist network still pose an active threat to America.
"Even as we decimated the al Qaeda leadership that attacked us on 9/11, al Qaeda affiliates and likeminded extremists still threaten our homeland," he said.
Obama also saluted diplomatic personnel who have come under threat in recent days.
The president first addressed the mounting terror threat on Tuesday, during an appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
"Terrorists depend on the idea that we're going to be terrorized," Obama said during the appearance. "We're going to live our lives."