News broke Wednesday (Aug. 20) that an American journalist had been beheaded at the hand of the Islamic State (IS). President Barack Obama has now responded to the horrific event, vowing that the United States will be relentless in its fight against the Muslim extremists.
In a statement, Obama said, "The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done.”
The president did not define what would be done in response to James Foley’s brutal murder; the US has already struck Iraq with dozens of missiles in an effort to protect religious minorities including Christians and Yazidis from the Islamic State’s cruelty and violence.
Obama did condemn IS harshly for their actions saying, "Their ideology is bankrupt. They may claim, out of expediency, that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is, they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior.”
Publication date: August 21, 2014
