WASHINGTON (AP) — For much of President Barack Obama’s
tenure in the White House, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have
provided a well-defined framework for his foreign policy philosophy. He
ran for the White House pledging to bring the conflicts to a close and
promised the American people that he would seek to avoid unnecessary
war.
But as the second of those two wars winds down, Obama finds
himself struggling to articulate what role he sees the U.S. playing on
the world stage for the remainder of his second term. The ongoing
conflict in Syria and Russia’s threatening moves have also raised
questions about how the U.S. can credibly threaten consequences against
international foes when Obama so clearly wants to stay out of another
large-scale military endeavor.
The president’s surprise trip to
Afghanistan Sunday marked the start of a concerted White House effort
that aims to answer some of those questions. Even as Obama heralded a
drawdown of U.S. forces that will bring the war to "a responsible end"
later this year, he said it was likely that a small contingent of U.S.
forces would stay behind for counterterrorism missions, as well as to
train Afghan security forces.
"Because after all the sacrifices
we’ve made, we want to preserve the gains that you have helped to win
and we’re going to make sure that Afghanistan can never again, ever, be
used again to launch an attack against our country," Obama said during
remarks to hundreds of U.S. troops at Bagram Air Field, the main
American base in Afghanistan.
The president returned just after
daybreak Monday to Washington and was ready to lead a Memorial Day
remembrance in late morning at Arlington National Cemetery. The
president is expected to fill in details of his post-2014 Afghanistan
plan during a commencement address Wednesday at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point. The Pentagon has been pressing for Obama to keep
up to 10,000 troops in Afghanistan, though the White House also has been
evaluating options that call for fewer forces.
Ben Rhodes,
Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the Afghan drawdown,
which follows the conclusion of the Iraq war in 2011, marks a "turning
point" for Obama’s foreign policy agenda.
"Our foreign policy is
going to look a lot different going forward than it did in the last
decade when Iraq and Afghanistan really dominated the discussion,"
Rhodes told reporters traveling with Obama to Afghanistan.
Yet it
remains unclear exactly how a revamped foreign policy will take shape.
Officials say Obama will continue to take a proactive approach to
light-footprint counterterrorism operations the U.S. can undertake on
its own, including drone strikes in places like Pakistan and Yemen. But
he’s also expected to emphasize his desire to have some measure of
international consensus when large-scale military options are on the
table.
Obama’s critics argue that his approach is too cautious and
leaves the U.S. beholden to allies who are sometimes less willing to
engage. The debate over launching a military strike on Syria last year
shifted in part because British Parliament voted down the use of force,
leaving the U.S. with few partners backing an attack. Rather than press
forward, Obama decided to seek congressional approval, then signed on to
a Russian effort to strip Syria of its chemical weapons stockpiles.
The
president’s opponents contend that Obama’s Syria indecision not only
emboldened Russia as it annexed Crimea and eyes more Ukrainian
territory, but also China in its land and sea disputes with numerous
Asian nations.
White House officials reject the notion that Obama
can only show strength by launching military action and argue that
economic sanctions are proving to be a deterrent to Russia. They also
cast the chemical weapons agreement with Syrian as a sweeping success,
even if it has done little to end a civil war there that has left more
than 150,000 people dead.
White House officials say Obama will
also address the U.S. response to those issues during his West Point
speech, as well as during an upcoming trip to Europe.
"What we
want to do is step back and put all of these different events into the
context of how does America lead in the world and how do we strike that
balance between not getting overextended as we were in Iraq, but
ensuring that we are leading coalitions of nations, leading the
international community on different issues," Rhodes said.
The
U.S. is counting on a smaller coalition of international forces to stay
behind with U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the end of this year. That
force presence remains contingent on the Afghan government signing a
bilateral security agreement with the U.S.
Despite negotiating the
agreement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign the
agreement, choosing instead to leave that to his successor. Both of the
candidates on the ballot in next month’s Afghan presidential runoff have
said they plan to sign the accord.
Obama pointedly did not meet
with Karzai while in Afghanistan and it appeared as though the U.S. gave
the Afghan leader little notice before Obama arrived at Bagram. The
White House said the two leaders did speak by phone, but only after Air
Force One had departed for Washington.
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