Obama Embraces Role of Indispensable U.S. in Syria Strike
By Margaret Talev
Sep 24, 2014 2:00 PM ET
Photographer: Ahmed Hasan Ubeyd/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Syrians inspect the rubble of destroyed houses following the U.S.-led coalition's airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on a residential area in Idlib, Syria, on Sept. 23, 2014.
From war to Ebola to climate change, President Barack Obama is embracing the role of the U.S. as the indispensable nation -- a stance he might have shrunk from at the start of his presidency.
The military strikes against Islamic State positions in Syria and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Khorasan Group this week began hours before Obama traveled to the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
As he arrived on that world stage, he carried with him an agenda that puts the U.S. squarely in a lead role in confronting three global crises:
-- Leading a coalition of nations in a military confrontation with Islamic State militants that may extend for years, a conflict to be passed on to his successor much as he inherited the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-- Sending 3,000 military personnel to help eradicate the Ebola virus in Africa.
-- Tackling climate change by ordering federal agencies to consider the issue in shaping development aid overseas.
Related
Obama: U.S. to Do Whatever's Needed to Fight Terrorists
Contrast these steps to Obama’s election in 2008 on a promise to end the Iraq War and his decision not to strike the Assad regime in Syria a year ago without the backing of Congress. In a May 2013 speech at National Defense University, he called on Congress to consider “how we can continue to fight terrorism without keeping America on a perpetual wartime footing.”
Photographer: Hasan Jamali/AP Photo F/A-18 fighter jets take off for mission in Iraq from the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush.
Unknown Outcome
Obama signaled the change in tone last night, declaring at a fundraiser in New York that the U.S. is “the one indispensable nation.”
“There is great disorder in the world,” he said. “All those things are justifiably making people wonder whether the center will hold,” he told donors at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee event. “The good news is this week what you’re seeing is what American leadership is.”
Obama’s willingness to take more initiative, especially militarily, represents a shift, said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“He thought moments like this could be avoided by discipline and strong policy,” Alterman said. “Now, he is engaging in an effort that has no clear endpoint and no clear path.”
Time will tell how incremental -- or successful -- that change will be, Alterman said, noting Obama’s emphasis on the coalition of nations, including Arab states.
Open-Ended Engagements
“The president’s reluctance has been over open-ended military engagements,” he said. “Trying to have others take the lead doesn’t do anything to guarantee it won’t become an open-ended engagement or a failed effort. The more you make this military, the more you set us up for ongoing kinetic actions that don’t have the desired political effect.”
“I don’t think there’s any question the U.S. is the indispensable nation. The criticism I get is that the U.S. isn’t leading effectively,” Alterman said.
P.J. Crowley, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state, said Obama’s pivot is more the product of a changing world.
“A year ago, he could not convince his own Congress nor the international community of the need to defend international norms after the use of chemical weapons,” he said. “But a year later, he’s saying, ‘This is not America against ISIL, it’s the world against ISIL,’” Crowley said.
Personal Orders
Obama said yesterday that he personally gave the orders to attack in Syria “so that these terrorists can’t find safe haven anywhere.”
He praised the U.S. armed forces as “the finest military that the world’s ever known,” while emphasizing Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar are partners in the fight against Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL.
“The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not America’s fight alone,” Obama said.
Former NATO Commander and retired General Wesley Clark said he sees Obama’s decision on Syria in the context of self-defense -- not as a statement about U.S. indispensability.
“I don’t think you should categorize the actions in that axis,” he said. “The U.S. must act to prevent the emergence of a terrorist state during the internal struggles of Islam. And the U.S. will strike in self-defense from time to time.”
Shawn Brimley, director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, said the notion of Obama’s retreat from foreign policy has been exaggerated. The president has always made it plain that he would take out threats to U.S. national security even as he sought to end wars, Brimley said.
“That said, it’s pretty clear to me that the White House over the summertime definitely heard this thesis take hold -- the notion his foreign policy is not as assertive as required -- and they’re looking at opportunities to reframe the debate.”
‘Call Us’
The president nodded to the nation’s standing in a Sept. 17 speech in Tampa, Florida, at MacDill Air Force Base.
“If there is some sort of crisis, if there is an earthquake, if there’s a need for a rescue mission, when the world is threatened, when the world needs help, it calls on America,” he said. “Even the countries that complain about America, when they need help, who do they call? They call us.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Talev in United Nations at mtalev@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeanne Cummings at jcummings21@bloomberg.net Mark McQuillan
__________
What do you think?
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
24092014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là ĐỒNG LÕA với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment