Monday, July 18, 2016

Is President Obama’s Whac-A-Mole Strategy Working?


Fareed Zakaria, Gazette-Mail/Washington Post: Obama’s Whac-A-Mole strategy

NEW YORK — It has become conventional wisdom to note that Barack Obama has failed in his efforts to extricate America from military conflicts in the Middle East.

Having promised to end these wars, he has, in the past year, expanded American interventions in Iraq, Syria and other countries. The troop drawdown in Afghanistan has slowed to a trickle. “Obama’s legacy,” says Gene Healy of the Cato Institute, is clear — “endless war.”

The New York Times’ Mark Landler noted in May that Obama had just “passed a somber, little-noticed milestone: He has now been at war longer than Mr. Bush, or any other American president.”

But these characterizations treat all military activity as alike, in a way that blurs, rather than sharpens, the picture. When Obama entered the White House, 180,000 American troops were engaged in active military combat in two theaters, Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal of both wars was to establish political order in these countries — indeed, to create functioning liberal democracies.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The Islamic State grew and metastasised during President Obama's term of office .... so I am not convinced that this "whac-a-mole" strategy is actually working. And as for the other conflicts .... the Taliban now control more territory in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion after 9/11 ... and Al Qaeda is still around. Fareed Zakaria may be comfortable with President Obama's war strategy .... but I am with the American people on this one .... Poll: Majority Of Americans Do Not Believe President Obama Has A Clear Plan for The Islamic State (November 23, 2015)

6 comments:

RRH said...

Nation of Islam, New Black Panthers, KKK, Aryan Brotherhood etc etc. Round 'em up. Put 'em in labour camps. Work 'em till they drop.


http://sputniknews.com/us/20160718/1043179817/baton-rouge-black-shooter-islam.html

Jay Farquharson said...

Islamic State first formed in 1999 as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999.

Obama was an Illinois Senator back then, Clinton was President.

They decared an Islamic State in Iraq in October, 2006, Bush II was still President.

Their "university" was Camp Bucca, which was operated by the US under President Bush II and closed down in 2010 under President Obama.





RRH said...

I love history.

"What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?"

Zbigniew Brzezinski


fred said...

To blame Obama ignores the fact that Bush got rid of the officer corps of the Iraq army and those unemployed then formed the initial group that was to be called ISIS.

Anonymous said...

I am no Fan of Bush.....but after 7.5 years...it's not Bush's fault!!

Jay Farquharson said...

It's not "all" Bush's fault, but it's also not Obama's fault for not being able to put out the multiple fires Bush started.