Groups like Qaeda, ISIS will never be able to defeat US: Obama

From Lalit K Jha Washington, Sep 11 (PTI) Leading the nation in rememberingthe victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack, US President BarackObama today said that terror groups like al Qaeda and theIslamic State will never be able to defeat the US and askedAmericans not to let "others divide us". "Groups like al Qaeda, like ISIL, know that we will neverbe able — they will never be able to defeat a nation as greatand as strong as America," Obama said at a memorial servicefor 9/11 victims at the Pentagon. "So, instead, they’ve tried to terrorise in the hopes thatthey can stoke enough fear that we turn on each other and thatwe change who we are or how we live," he said. "And that’s why it is so important today that we reaffirmour character as a nation — a people drawn from every cornerof the world, every colour, every religion, every background– bound by a creed as old as our founding, e pluribus unum,"he said. "Out of many, we are one. For we know that our diversity– our patchwork heritage — is not a weakness; it is still,and always will be, one of our greatest strengths. This isthe America that was attacked that September morning. This isthe America that we must remain true to," Obama said. Across the country, Americans are coming together inservice and remembrance, he said. "We run our fingers over the names in memorial bencheshere at the Pentagon. We walk the hallowed grounds of aPennsylvania field. We look up at a gleaming tower thatpierces the New York City skyline. But in the end, the mostenduring memorial to those we lost is ensuring the Americathat we continue to be — that we stay true to ourselves, thatwe stay true to what’s best in us, that we do not let othersdivide us," said the US President, apparently referring to theRepublican presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Obama participated in a wreath ceremony outside of thePentagon. He was joined by the Defense Secretary Ashton Carterand the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Joseph Dunford.A trumpet played as Obama stood solemnly in front of thewreath with his hand over his heart. A moment of silence was observed at 9:32 in remembrancethose who perished in the Pentagon attack. "Today, we return to the site of an attack motivated bybarbarism and hate. An attack that rattled the world, thatshook this mighty building, and that took 184 lives from ushere at the Pentagon as well as thousands more in New York andPennsylvania," Carter said in his address. "Indeed, when someone strikes at the heart of what westand for, we respond with the full might of the finestfighting force the world has ever known. Because our memory islong and our reach and resolve are endless, our enemies cannothide, they cannot escape, they cannot endure. Wherever theyare, they will surely, no matter how long it takes, come tofeel the righteous fist of American might," Carter said. PTILKJUZM