President Barack Obama greets U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham (C) and Gen. Joseph Dunfore, Commander of ISAF and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, during a surprise visit to Kabul May 25. (AFP)
By: Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Ross Douthat says of the man who ended two long wars, killed America’s most relentless enemy – you know, the guy behind the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001 – and who, perhaps, most significantly, did not start any new wars, “if Obama’s presidency ended today I have no idea what major foreign policy achievements his defenders could reasonably cite.” For Douthat, “the absence of an Iraq-scale fiasco is not identical to success.”
For many of us, the fact that Barack Obama is not George W. Bush, is indeed a success. Douthat, like every conservative, chary of naming Bush, says, “history shouldn’t grade this president on a curve set by Donald Rumsfeld,” which is a ridiculous comparison since Rumsfeld was not president, or even vice president. But Douthat cannot even bring himself to name Bush, but rather, calls him Obama’s “predecessor.”
As ever, Douthat adopts a reasonable tone, trying to set himself apart from the extremists whose voices we are accustomed to hearing at Fox News:
“Failure is a relative term, to be sure. His predecessor’s invasion of Iraq still looms as the largest American blunder of the post-Vietnam era. None of Obama’s difficulties have rivaled that debacle. And many of the sweeping conservative critiques of his foreign policy — that Obama has weakened America’s position in the world, that he’s too chary about using military force — lack perspective on how much damage the Iraq war did to American interests, and how many current problems can be traced back to errors made in 2003.”
There is a big “but” coming, of course, but now Douthat has put himself in the position of not simply deriding Obama’s efforts because he’s Obama, of not sounding like all Obama’s other critics. In this, he is like a male, print-version of Megyn Kelly, and one wearing (presumably) more clothes.
Read more.
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Obama Makes Surprise Visit to Afghanistan
May 25, 2014
U.S. President Barack Obama has left Afghanistan after a 4-hour surprise visit to see American troops during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Speaking late Sunday at Bagram Airfield, the president told troops he is thankful for their service. He called them “real heroes.” He also pledged to bring a “responsible end” to America’s longest war. He promised to announce “fairly shortly” how many U.S. troops will remain in the country after the current combat mission is concluded at end of this year.
Memorial Day is a time when Americans honor the country’s war dead.
Obama said they are completing the U.S. mission in Afghanistan by decimating al-Qaida leaders in the tribal regions, reversing the Taliban’s momentum and protecting lives back home by preventing attacks from the region.
He also said he hopes a U.S.-Afghan security agreement will be signed once a new Afghan president is sworn in.
Before leaving Afghanistan, Obama called President Hamid Karzai to praise the progress being made by security forces and the successful first round of presidential elections, and to express support for an Afghan-led reconciliation process with the Taliban. The call lasted 15 to 20 minutes according to a senior administration official.
Read more at VOA News.
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