Challenges for America in the Middle East by Richard W. & Kirsten L. Taylor

Author:Richard W. & Kirsten L. Taylor [W., Richard & Taylor, Kirsten L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, World, Middle Eastern
ISBN: 9781506308227
Google: SUtvjgEACAAJ
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Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2016-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

In May 2013 President Obama in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., recalled, “With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a new dawn of democracy took hold abroad, and a decade of peace and prosperity arrived at home. For a moment, it seemed the 21st century would be a tranquil time. Then, on September 11th 2001, we were shaken out of complacency. . . . And so our nation went to war.” He then added, “We have now been at war for well over a decade,” and concluded that “our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.”1

To this end the president asked Congress to repeal the “Authorization to Use Military Force” that it passed after 9/11 to provide a legal basis for the War on Terror. He also justified his use of drones (though only against those shown to pose a threat to Americans), again called on Congress to close down the Guantánamo detainment camp, and again rejected the use of torture in interrogating terrorist suspects. In fact, the president’s use of drones and his failure to close down Guantánamo continued to enjoy public support in America.2 What really mattered was that the president was declaring an end to the War on Terror, and in doing so hoped to raise the country’s moral stature in the eyes of foreign observers.

Although generally well received, Obama’s speech was criticized on the one hand by civil libertarians who thought the president did not sufficiently restrict the use of drones, and on the other by congressional Republicans who saw no reason to alter the way drones were used, believed the Guantánamo facility should remain open, and thought declaring an end to the War on Terror was premature. One conservative Republican senator declared, “This is the most tone-deaf president I ever could imagine, making such a speech at a time when our homeland is trying to be attacked [sic] literally every day.”3 To preclude charges of being weak toward terrorists, the president responded, “Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 Al Qaeda leaders who’ve been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement.”4 In reality, as one observer argued, the president’s speech portended “few concrete changes,” and its “main aims were to conserve the arc of the secret war that Obama has presided over and to help deflect responsibility for the inherited problems that he has been unable to fix.”5 What is clear is that America’s struggle against terrorism is far from over, and President Obama’s commitment of American airpower in Iraq and Syria in 2014 reflects this fact.

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