American leadership about more than 'just bombing somebody', Obama says

American leadership about more than 'just bombing somebody', Obama says

by Dave Smith at the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/18/obama-year-end-press-conference-american-leadership-syria-paris-iran-tpp-cuba-guantanamo-bay

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American leadership in the world “is not just a matter of us bombing somebody”, Barack Obama insisted on Friday as he reeled off a year of achievements from a global climate deal to the Iran nuclear pact.

During an end-of-year press conference at the White House, the president also claimed steady progress in the war against Islamic State and expressed optimism about working with Congress to reform the criminal justice system, but declined to rule out the idea of going it alone to close the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay.

Perhaps with an eye on the judgment of history, he set out a vision for America’s role in the world very different from the country that invaded Iraq in a hugely divisive war under President George W Bush.

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Domestically he cited a record streak of job growth, healthcare prices growing at their lowest level in five decades under the Affordable Care Act, legalisation of gay marriage in all 50 states and a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind law to invest in early childhood education.


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