Obama: We Must Dismantle ISIS "Network Of Death"

President Obama told the United Nations Wednesday that, "America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism," even as he works to dismantle a "network of death" established by Islamic extremists in the Middle East.

"We have waged a focused campaign against al Qaeda and its associated forces - taking out their leaders, and denying them the safe-havens they rely upon. At the same time, we have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace," Mr. Obama said. "So we reject any suggestion of a clash of civilizations. Belief in permanent religious war is the misguided refuge of extremists who cannot build or create anything, and therefore peddle only fanaticism and hate."

Mr. Obama's speech to the U.N. comes amid a host of international crises he has had to contend with in recent months. Chief among them is the spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also known as ISIS, or ISIL), which now controls vast swaths of territory in the two countries and is a threat in part because of the foreign fighters it has successfully attracted from Europe and the United States.

Mr. Obama announced Tuesday that the U.S. and five Arab partner nations had carried out their first air strikes against ISIS in Syria Monday evening. Separately, the U.S. also struck the Khorasan group, an al Qaeda affiliate operating in Syria that U.S. officials said was nearing the execution stage of an attack on the U.S.

But ISIS is not the only threat. In West Africa, the Ebola crisis rages on. The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that without timely, significant efforts to curb the crisis, the disease could infect up to 1.4 million people in Sierra Leone and Liberia by mid-January. Last week, Mr. Obama announced that he is sending up to 3,000 U.S. military personnel to West Africa to help combat and contain the spread of the virus, calling it a, "potential threat to global security."

He will deliver remarks at a U.N. meeting about the epidemic later Wednesday.

The Russian incursion into Ukraine also continues to worry the U.S. as months of sanctions on Russia have seemingly failed to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull back his troops and encourage pro-Russian rebels to put down their arms.

"It's a very important moment for the president to put everything that we're doing in the context of U.S. leadership in the world," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters Tuesday. "We are leading a coalition of countries against ISIL. We are leading an effort to combat the outbreak of Ebola. We are leading an effort to impose costs on Russia and to support the Ukrainian people... We believe that the constant thread between them is U.S. leadership."

After addressing the General Assembly, Mr. Obama will lead a meeting of the Security Council, marking only the second time in history that a U.S. president will chair the meeting. He will also hold a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines with leaders like Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al Sisi.