Obama’s Foreign Policy In Review II – Iraq and Afghanistan

The image of the Republican party before the 2008 was crippled by “Bush’s Wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, by the time McCain and Obama were squaring off for the Presidency, Iraq had lost its preeminence in the debates as focus shifted to the ailing American economy. This shift was also encouraged when Bush finally succumbed to the advice of his generals and approved General Patraeus’ troop “surge,” which brought order to Iraq and set the country back on track (at least for now). Afghanistan remained an important part of the Presidential debate as well though, unlike Iraq, it is widely regarded as a “just” war. Here too McCain and Obama knocked heads: McCain emphasized Obama’s misreading of the Iraq troop surge and Obama focused on finishing the mismanaged war and bringing American soldiers back home.

With a year of Obama’s foreign policy it is quite clear that in these two theaters Obama is quite in line with his predecessor’s strategy (at least the one that was adopted on the eve of Obama’s election). Obama has allowed the troop surge to continue in Iraq and America has met success in this endeavor. Though Obama shouldn’t be commended for staying a course that was already widely regarded as a successful one, at least he didn’t pull out of Iraq completely, as many of his supporters advocated.

What’s more, and truly shocking considering his campaign rhetoric, Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan. His new surge (which coincided with his Nobel Peace Prize) called for an additional 30,000 troops to be sent to Afghanistan to rein in the Taliban and warlord elements in the country and establish some semblance of order. Furthermore, Afghanistan’s neighbor, Pakistan, has also been working closely with Obama (who made good on his promise to bomb terrorists operating in Pakistan) to root out the irregular forces operating at the border. In this escalation in Afghanistan, should Obama be commended?

Former President Bush should, first of all, never have diverted our forces away from the efforts in Afghanistan. The fact that we still have not caught Osama Bin Laden is a true embarrassment, though it doesn’t seem as though he has any real power any more. However, even after having made that mistake, he should have escalated Afghanistan in much the same way that he escalated Iraq. The question is, was it too late? Apparently, Obama believes that we still have time to fix the situation (though, it is interesting to debate whether Obama would have done this on his own or if McChrystal’s unorthodox requests through news media channels got the job done).

The latest development in Afghanistan is, of course, President Karzai’s courting of Iranian friendship and the string of insults leveled against the USA. Thomas Friedman, in a NY Times Op-Ed piece, said it best: “Never want it more than they do.” If the Afghan people (or at least the leadership) won’t support American efforts in the country then, no matter how hard we try to build a viable nation there, we will fail. Obama has demonstrated he is no pushover in Afghanistan, but he must remain vigilant, especially with Afghan politics.

Now that we have escalated the war in Afghanistan only to find that our “ally” doesn’t want us there, what do we do? Time will tell whether or not our troop escalation in Afghanistan was a wise tactic or not. Tragically, American lives are at stake.

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