The US is at war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. And don’t forget Pakistan and Yemen. Suffice it to say, Obama has his hands full with foreign military engagements – none of them popular with the American people. The US is winding down its involvement in Iraq, but will continue to play a role there for the foreseeable future.
The dramatic US killing of bin Laden in Pakistan on May 1, in an operation conducted out of Afghanistan, scores one in the plus column for Obama’s expanded war there, but has renewed public debate about how quickly the US can pull out. Last year, Obama sent 33,000 additional troops into the country, and although some troop withdrawals are planned for July, US combat operations aren’t scheduled to stop until the end of 2014.
Administration officials stress that the goal of the war in the Afghanistan is to dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda and enhance stability in the region, not just eliminate bin Laden, so analysts do not expect an acceleration of the US withdrawal. This may not play well with the US public.
US involvement in Libya’s civil war also doesn’t do much for Obama, as it boosts a feeling of military over-extension abroad. Overall, Obama has undercut the image he carved out during the 2008 campaign as the antiwar candidate.
Among Obama’s progressive base, Afghanistan in particular is a source of great consternation. “The chance to campaign in 2012 on a platform of ending two trillion-dollar wars at a time of economic recession should be attractive, especially to a president who has lost his liberal base,” veteran antiwar activist Tom Hayden wrote April 26 in The Nation. “But cutting compromises with the Pentagon and Republicans may leave Obama right where his opposition wants him, floundering in the center of quagmires he has created.”
Mr. Hayden wrote that before the death of bin Laden. The elimination of the 9/11 mastermind has only heightened calls on the left for US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In a war-related matter, Obama’s failure to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, an oft-repeated campaign promise in 2008, has made him look ineffective. Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement April 4 that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed would face a military commission at Guantanamo rather than a civilian trial in the US represented another defeat for Obama. The flap over the treatment of alleged WikiLeaker Pfc. Bradley Manning has also given the administration a black eye.
