America takes fight to Islamic State in Syria!

The United States performed the first airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria on September 22, widening operations in the growing non-war between the U.S. and the newly formed terrorist super power.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "We will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people," said President Obama, announcing the airstrikes at the White House before leaving for New York to meet with the United Nations for three days about dealing with the increasingly dangerous Islamic State.

If you stand by while this genocide occurs, then you are CONDONING IT!

The president also reassured the people that the U.S. is not fighting the Islamic State alone. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates also participated in the Syrian attacks.

"The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not America's fight alone," Obama said.

During his trip to New York, the president plans to meet with officials from all five of these allied Arab nations.

Airstrikes were also performed on the Khorasan Group, an al-Qaeda terrorist branch, which has set itself up inside Syrian territory.

Currently, the U.S. does not plan to put ground forces in Iraq or Syria for military operations. President Obama has repeatedly said that his plan is to train local forces to fight the Islamic State, hurt the Islamic State's ability to recruit foreigners-and convince other countries to do the same-and destroy targets with airstrikes.

"The overall effort will take time," Obama said. "There will be challenges ahead. But we're gonna do what's necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group, for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world."

Republican House Speaker John Boehner said that he backed these new airstrikes as "just one step in what must be a larger effort to destroy and defeat" the Islamic State.

There has been some international pressure against the new airstrikes, however.

Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran, denounced the U.S. operation in Syria, arguing that the U.S. should have gotten permission from the Syrian government before opening up these new military operations.

But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the United States had given what it felt was adequate warning of the attacks via mutual representatives at the United Nations.

"We warned Syria not to engage U.S. aircraft," Psaki said. "We did not request the regime's permission ... We did not provide advance notification to the Syrians at a military level, or give any indication of our timing on specific targets."

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