Obama Announces $5bn To Fight Global Terror … Says No American Security Operation Can Eradicate the Threats of Boko Haram
Adetokunbo Fakeye with agency report
US President Barack Obama has announced a $5bn (£3bn) “terrorism partnership fund” to help other countries tackle extremists.Continue reading the main story
President Barak Obama this afternoon announced a whopping $5bn to tackle global terror .
He made this announcement during his Foreign Policy Vision speech at the US Military Academy in West Point, NY.
The end of the combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of the year would free up resources to tackle emerging threats elsewhere, he said.
“I am calling on Congress to support a new counter-terrorism partnerships fund of up to $5 billion, which will allow us to train, build capacity, and facilitate partner countries on the front lines.”
The money would go towards missions such as training security forces in Yemen, supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia, working with European allies to train a functioning security force in Libya, and helping French operations in Mali, he said.
Turning to the civil war in Syria, he promised to “ramp up support” for those in opposition to the regime of President Assad, although he did not give details about what that would mean in practice.
“We must broaden our tools to include diplomacy and development; sanctions and isolation; appeals to international law and – if just, necessary, and effective – multilateral military action”, he said.
His speech attempted to recast US foreign policy as one which would use military force when necessary but primarily acts on a platform of international consensus.
“We must do so because collective action in these circumstances is more likely to succeed, more likely to be sustained, and less likely to lead to costly mistakes.”
In the wide-ranging address to West Point graduates Mr Obama touched on a range of foreign policy issues, such as: “a strategy that involves invading every country that harbours terrorist networks is naïve and unsustainable”
Small-scale capture and drone operations by the US military would continued to be used, but with increased transparency
US leadership had helped bring Iran to negotiate on nuclear issues and isolated world opinion against Russia in the Ukrainian crisis. He praised the United Nations and Nato, which he said was “the strongest alliance the world has ever known”
“American influence is always stronger when we lead by example”, he said. Obama criticized domestic politicians for denying climate change and refusing to sign a UN maritime treaty as well as a continued push to close the US military prison at Guantanamo
US should focus on development and education as “no American security operation can eradicate the threat posed by an extremist group like Boko Haram”
Last week, the US sent about 80 troops to Chad as part of a mission to help locate hundreds of school girls abducted by Islamist group Boko Haram in neighbouring Nigeria.
The address marks the start of a series of speeches from the president about foreign policy over the next 10 days, in an attempt to respond to critics who say current US foreign policy is weak.
On a trip to Europe, he will give a speech about US commitment to Europe in Warsaw, meet with the G7 leaders in Brussels, and honour US veterans in Normandy at the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
