'Lasting peace does not require perpetual war'

Proposing that "enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war," US President Barack Obama opened his second term in the White House with a promise of greater American engagement and less confrontation with the world that can "more durably lift suspicion and fear."
In a rousing inaugural address following his re-election and swearing-in for four more years at the helm of the world's most influential country, the US President offered plenty of hints that America would now focus on the challenging internal social, political, and economic dynamics rather than be sucked into solving the world's problems.
America, he said, will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe; and it will renew those institutions that extend its capacity to manage crisis abroad, "for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation." But there was a sense that he was drawing down on the age of active and aggressive American interventionism where US interests are not involved.
"We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully — not because we are naive about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear," Obama said.
In a speech whose theme centered on faith in America's future, Obama drew the portrait of a country whose journey was yet incomplete and said "America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention."
America, he said, is "made for this moment, and we will seize it."
The US President touched on a range of hot button topics from gay rights and gun violence to immigration and the role of government.
The word terrorism did not feature in his 2100-word, 15-minute address.