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Obama lays out new postwar foreign policy, stresses nonmilitary options Obama lays out new postwar foreign policy, stresses nonmilitary options
(about 5 hours later)
WEST POINT, N.Y. — President Obama on Wednesday laid out a new, postwar foreign policy after more than a decade of combat overseas, outlining a global counterterrorism initiative and arguing for a balance between interventionism and “foreign entanglements.” WEST POINT, N.Y. — President Obama laid out his vision Wednesday for a comprehensive post-9/11 foreign policy after more than a decade of war overseas, arguing for a new form of American leadership that strikes a balance between interventionism and “foreign entanglements.”
In a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy, he stressed the importance of nonmilitary options in addressing the world’s foreign policy challenges, as well as collective international action. Speaking in front of 1,000 cadets here at the U.S. Military Academy commencement ceremony, Obama articulated an approach that he said would employ targeted force in a responsible fashion, including a new initiative aimed at responding to terrorist threats. He sought to blunt growing criticism from political rivals who have called his administration feckless in its response to global crises in Russia, Syria and elsewhere.
Coming more than six years into a presidency that has been devoted to winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama’s announcement of his new foreign policy approach also featured a defense of his administration’s handling of foreign crises and a suggestion that some critics are out of step with a nation weary after 13 years of war. Many of the policies and postures had been outlined by the president and his aides previously on a piecemeal basis. But Wednesday’s address was focused on pulling those strands together into a coherent, post-war outlook for U.S. foreign policy — and was delivered to an audience of graduating cadets who are likely to be the first since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, not to be deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq.
He sought to strike a balance between those who want to avoid involvement in foreign conflicts and “interventionists on the left and right” who want to apply U.S. power to solve various world problems. Obama stressed the importance of nonmilitary options in addressing the world’s challenges, as well as collective international action. Coming more than six years into a presidency devoted to winding down the wars, the speech featured a firm defense of his administration’s handling of foreign crises — including those in Nigeria, Syria and Ukraine — and a suggestion that many critics are out of step with a nation tired from 13 years of war.
“Each side can point to history to support its claims,” Obama said. “But I believe neither view fully speaks to the demands of this moment. It is absolutely true that in the 21st century, American isolationism is not an option. . . . But to say that we have an interest in pursuing peace and freedom beyond our borders is not to say that every problem has a military solution.” “Here’s my bottom line: America must always lead,” Obama said. “If we don’t, no one else will. The military that you have joined is and always will be the backbone of that leadership. But U.S. military action cannot be the only — or even the primary — component of our leadership in every instance.”
[Read the text of Obama’s commencement speech.] The White House hoped the speech — coming a day after Obama announced plans to significantly draw down U.S. forces in Afghanistan by year’s end — would mark a new phase in the administration’s foreign policy and act as a counterweight to the escalating critiques from those on the left and the right who have called on him to be more assertive abroad.
With the United States drawing down its forces in Afghanistan, Obama called on Congress to support a new $5 billion “Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund” to respond to evolving terrorist threats around the world. The White House said the program “will provide the flexibility and resources required to respond to emerging needs as terrorist threats around the world continue to evolve.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama’s presidential challenger in 2008 and one of Capitol Hill’s most vocal hawks, attacked the West Point address as an insufficient response to global threats and argued that Obama mischaracterized his foes as clamoring for military conflict.
Obama also defended his decision during his first term to surge forces in Afghanistan. “America’s security demanded those deployments,” he said. “But I am haunted by those deaths. I am haunted by those wounds. And I would betray my duty to you, and to the country we love, if I sent you into harm’s way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed to be fixed, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak.” “It is unfortunate that the president once again fell back on his familiar tactic of attacking straw-men, posturing as the voice of reason between extremes, and suggesting that the only alternative to his policies is the unilateral use of military force everywhere,” McCain said in a statement. “Literally no one is proposing that, and it is intellectually dishonest to suggest so.”
He said that “for the foreseeable future, the most direct threat to America at home and abroad remains terrorism.” However, he added, “a strategy that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is naive and unsustainable. I believe we must shift our counterterrorism strategy — drawing on the successes and shortcomings of our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan — to more effectively partner with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold.” But Obama’s speech appeared to be less about changing the terms of the foreign policy debate in Washington than about appealing to a war-weary electorate, which twice chose him as president on platforms of steady withdrawal from foreign military operations. The address echoed Obama’s earlier defenses of his foreign policy — stressing such themes as multilateralism, Muslim outreach and ending torture — as a corrective response to the approach of the George W. Bush administration.
As the United States transitions to a military training and advisory mission in Afghanistan, Obama said, “our reduced presence allows us to more effectively address emerging threats in the Middle East and North Africa.” He said he asked his national security team earlier this year to “develop a plan for a network of partnerships” from South Asia to northern Africa. The remarks, delivered to the newest members of the nation’s elite military officer class, also came as the administration struggled to respond to findings that Department of Veterans Affairs officials in Phoenix concealed chronically long wait times for patients awaiting care.
“Today, as part of this effort, I am calling on Congress to support a new Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund of up to $5 billion, which will allow us to train, build capacity and facilitate partner countries on the front lines,” Obama said. “These resources will give us flexibility to fulfill different missions, including training security forces in Yemen who’ve gone on the offensive against al-Qaeda, supporting a multinational force to keep the peace in Somalia, working with European allies to train a functioning security force and border patrol in Libya, and facilitating French operations in Mali.” Polls show public support waning for direct U.S. military intervention in international conflicts; parents applauded Wednesday when Obama noted that the cadets in attendance may not have to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. At the same time, public approval of Obama’s handling of foreign affairs also has dropped in recent polls.
He said one critical focus of the effort would be the ongoing crisis in Syria, where three years of civil war have left more than 150,000 people dead and much of the country in ruins. He said the additional resources would allow the United States to step up efforts to support countries bordering Syria, which have had to host refugees and confront terrorists. Critics have charged that the administration has not projected a clear and strong response to the Russian invasion of Crimea, Syria’s use of chemical weapons and a terrorist group’s abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria.
“The partnerships I’ve described do not eliminate the need to take direct action when necessary to protect ourselves,” Obama warned. “When we have actionable intelligence, that’s what we do.” In response, Obama called on Congress to support a new $5 billion “Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund” to respond to evolving terrorist threats around the world, emphasizing that “for the foreseeable future, the most direct threat to America at home and abroad remains terrorism.”
But he said direct actions must conform with U.S. values. “That means taking strikes only when we face a continuing, imminent threat, and only where . . . there is near certainty of no civilian casualties,” he said. “For our actions should meet a simple test: We must not create more enemies than we take off the battlefield.” One critical focus of the effort, he said, would be the crisis in Syria, where three years of civil war have left more than 150,000 people dead and much of the country in ruins. White House officials said the additional resources would allow the United States to step up efforts to support countries bordering Syria, which have had to take in refugees and confront terrorists, and to help train and support rebel forces fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Obama added that he would increasingly ask the U.S. military “to take the lead and provide information to the public about our efforts.” While the intelligence community “has done outstanding work,” the need to protect sources and methods means that “when we cannot explain our efforts clearly and publicly, we face terrorist propaganda and international suspicion, we erode legitimacy with our partners and our people, and we reduce accountability in our own government.” “The partnership I’ve described does not eliminate the need to take direct action when necessary to protect ourselves,” Obama warned. “When we have actionable intelligence, that’s what we do.”
In concluding his 40-minute address, Obama paid tribute to Gavin White, a 2011 West Point graduate who lost a leg in Afghanistan and whom Obama met last year at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Now White is watching his sister, Morgan, graduate from the academy, Obama said. But he said direct actions must conform with U.S. values. “That means taking strikes only when we face a continuing, imminent threat, and only where there is near certainty of no civilian casualties,” he said. “For our actions should meet a simple test: We must not create more enemies than we take off the battlefield.”
“We have been through a long season of war,” the president said. “We have faced trials that were not foreseen, and we’ve seen divisions about how to move forward. But there is something in Gavin’s character, there is something in the American character that will always triumph.” Obama paid an unannounced visit to Afghanistan over the Memorial Day weekend to thank troops. He also announced Tuesday that the United States will draw down to 9,800 forces there in a training and counterterrorism mission by year’s end, cutting that number in half by 2016.
Obama’s speech appeared aimed less at changing the terms of the national foreign policy debate in Washington than appealing to a war-weary electorate. It echoed Obama’s earlier defenses of his foreign policy — stressing such themes as multilateralism, Muslim outreach and ending torture — as a corrective to the approach of the George W. Bush administration. Next week, Obama will meet with U.S. allies in Brussels to further discuss the responses to Russian aggression, and he’ll visit the beaches of Normandy in remembrance of D-Day.
Obama also aimed to use the images this week of him visiting troops and addressing the new Army officers to reaffirm his commitment to the Armed Forces after new reports emerged this month of falsified wait times at veteran hospitals, a problem the administration has struggled to respond to. But the president, in his remarks here at West Point, made clear the costs of sending U.S. forces into a conflict zone. Gazing out at the uniformed rows of graduating cadets, he recalled his visit to the academy in 2009, when he announced a surge of forces in Afghanistan, and said that four cadets who graduated that day five years ago “gave their lives in that effort.”
Obama has long since moved past his initial skepticism about the United States’ role as an “indispensable nation.” He said Wednesday: “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions.” “I believe America’s security demanded those deployments,” he said. “But I am haunted by those deaths. . . . And I would betray my duty to you and to the country we love if I ever sent you into harm’s way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed to be fixed, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak.”
The administration’s request for $5 billion for the new counterterrorism partnerships in fiscal 2015 would also cover expanded or enhanced Defense Department efforts, including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and Special Operations activities, the White House said in a fact sheet. A counterterrorism strategy “that involves invading every country that harbors terrorist networks is naive and unsustainable,” Obama added. “I believe we must shift our counterterrorism strategy — drawing on the successes and shortcomings of our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan — to more effectively partner with countries where terrorist networks seek a foothold.”
Secretary of State John F. Kerry previewed the announcement early Wednesday in appearances on morning television programs. He also defended Obama’s decision to terminate the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 while keeping a residual force of 9,800 for another year and gradually reducing it to a small presence at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul by the end of 2016. Obama made clear that he has long since moved past his initial skepticism about the United States’ role as an “indispensable nation” — a position that drew Republican attacks early in his administration. On Wednesday, he declared that “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.”
Kerry said on NBC’s “Today” show that Obama is telling the Afghans “by a specific time they have to take over management of their own security and military.” He said the Afghans must realize that they do not have “all the time in the world.” He added, however, “This is not an abandonment of Afghanistan. . . . This is an empowerment of Afghanistan.” But he said that “what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions.”
Interviewed on “CBS This Morning,” Kerry said the pullout would allow the United States to put resources into fighting terrorism in other parts of the world. In seeking to blunt his critics, Obama pointed to small steps of progress, including negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and the outcome of the presidential election in Ukraine last weekend, when a pro-Europe businessman emerged victorious despite intimidation at the polls from pro-Russia separatists.
In announcing the new counterterrorism fund, the White House said it was finalizing the Defense Department portion of the fiscal 2015 Overseas Contingency Operations consistent with Obama’s decision on troop levels in Afghanistan. It said the request would “reflect a continued downward trajectory of war-related spending.” Obama acknowledged that the odds of a nuclear deal with Iran “are still long,” but he said there remained “a very real chance of a breakthrough agreement” for the first time in a decade, “one that is more effective and durable than what we could have achieved through the use of force.”
The new Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund would “build on existing tools and authorities to allow the administration to respond to evolving terrorist threats,” the White House said. “It will allow us to pursue a more sustainable and effective approach to combating terrorism that focuses on empowering and enabling our partners around the globe.“ The point, Obama added, “is this is American leadership. This is American strength.”
Branigin reported from Washington. Scott Wilson in Washington contributed to this report. William Branigin and Scott Wilson in Washington contributed to this report.