U.S. soldiers in the International Assistance Security Assistance Force watch a television broadcast showing the inauguration of Barack Obama at their base in Kabul, Afghanistan on Jan 20.Obama to terrorists: ‘We will defeat you’By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 20, 2009 17:43:40 EST
On the day he was inaugurated, Barack Obama sent a message to potential adversaries that just because a Democrat is running the show doesn’t mean the U.S. will go soft.
In a speech minutes after he took the oath of office and became the 44th president of the United States, Obama said, “For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken, you cannot outlast us and we will defeat you.”
That line drew bipartisan applause from members of the House and Senate on the podium on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol before a sea of people that extended down the National Mall as far as the eye could see.
Included in the audience were members of the Medal of Honor Society and some of their family members, representatives of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America who have been pushing Obama to make improvements in veterans programs and surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, who in World War II became America’s first black military aviators.
A group from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America had tickets to the inaugural but were turned away by security because of overcrowding. They managed to make it back to their Washington, D.C., office to watch the speech on TV.
Rest of article at:
http://armytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_obama_speech...