WASHINGTON –
President Barack Obama pledged a "prudent use" of military power as the nation works toward "ushering in a new era of peace" in his inaugural address to the nation Jan. 20.
"Our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint," he said from the west side of the Capitol here after taking the oath of office as the 44th president. An estimated 2 million people crowded the National Mall and surrounding area to hear his address.
The use of these principles will allow America to develop greater understanding of other nations and greater cooperation against common threats from them, he said.
"We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan," President Obama said. "With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet."
Obama said Americans will not apologize for their way of life, nor waver in its defense. America is a country of doers and risk-takers; it is an immigrant country where each generation worked hard to provide for the next, he said.
"For us, they fought and died in places like Concord and Gettysburg, Normandy and Khe Sahn," he continued. "Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions, greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction."
Americans today must continue this journey, he said. It is time for hard decisions and a time of change.
President Obama rejected the idea that the nation has to choose between its safety and its ideals. "Our Founding Fathers -- faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine -- drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world and we will not give them up for expedience's sake."
President Obama reached out to the nations of the world in his speech. He told them that America "is a friend of each nation, and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more."
"Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred," the president said. "Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."
Americans have lost their homes, their jobs, their businesses and health care is too costly, he said. Schools are failing too many, and the American energy policy plays into the hands of the nation's enemies.
These are disturbing, but more disturbing is a sapping of confidence and the fear that with this decline the next generation must lower its sights, he said.
"Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations," President Obama said.