At start of second term, Obama faces gathering storm abroad

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

WASHINGTON – President Obama vowed, during his second inaugural address Monday, to "manage crisis abroad" in pursuit of a more "peaceful world."

But four years after the president first took the oath, the task remains perhaps his most daunting.

Moments before Obama spoke at the west front of the Capitol, confirmation that two more Americans had been killed in the hostage standoff in Algeria undercut the president's optimism. The news ups the tally of U.S. citizens killed to three, while seven others made it out safely.

The brutal, and evidently planned, attack in the Sahara underscores how much work is left to be done on the world stage as Obama embarks on his second term. While the president spent the bulk of his first four years focused inward -- on jolting the American economy, overhauling the health care system and campaigning -- the number of international challenges has only mounted.

The attack in Algeria is the latest symptom of an emerging threat outside the Afghanistan-Pakistan axis that has been the focal point of America's "war on terror" since 2001. Plots have sprung out of Yemen, out of Libya and now Algeria, representing a massive band of instability spanning North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula -- not to mention the convulsing civil war in Syria.

Despite the challenge ahead, Obama on Monday sustained the message of reconciliation that drove his first term's foreign policy.

Check out FoxNews.com's full Inauguration 2013 coverage

"We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law," Obama said. "We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully -- not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear."

When Obama was first elected four years ago he talked an ambitious foreign policy. His first-term agenda included restoring America's tattered international image, ending two wars, using a carrot-and-stick approach to Iran's nuclear program and helping broker peace in the Middle East. Fast forward four years and the harsh reality is that many goals are unmet.

His biggest accomplishment, and the one that factored most into his reelection campaign, was the take-down of Usama bin Laden in Pakistan. But Al Qaeda's affiliates and allies have continued to threaten U.S. interests abroad, with a former Al Qaeda operative claiming credit for the attack in Algeria, where a total of 38 hostages reportedly have died.

Militants also stormed the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi in September, killing four Americans. The attackers have not yet been brought to justice.

As the president starts his second term, he will be forced to confront a number of other still-pending policy issues that could affect America's dominance in the global arena -- but it won't be easy.

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The coming storm.