President Obama last week in a speech from Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan, exhibited forcefully his role as a decisive commander in chief. Harking back to the second inaugural address of President Lincoln and his call for "malice towards none," and "binding the nation's wounds", the President stated, "with faith in each other and our eyes fixed on the future, let us finish the work at hand and forge a just and lasting peace." . In 2008 many thought Obama would cut and run from foreign engagements -- it was a hallmark of the McCain campaign -- he has proven them wrong. This President surged troops into Afghanistan, ordered air strikes over Libya, sent troops into the Central African Republic, released Navy Seals on pirates near the Horn of Africa, multiplied the number of drone strikes, and just made an agreement keep US forces in Afghanistan for 23 years. He has not sought war but when necessary has engaged directly and forcefully.
As the President said in his acceptance speech of the Nobel
Prize in 2009, "to say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to
cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the
limits of reason." This President recognizes the necessity of success in Afghanistan.
It would be easy to have left yesterday. Polls show the American people against
the war and there is no political prize for fighting a battle the public
believes cannot be won. However, he acutely recognizes the situation as it
exists. A committed foe focused on forcing out a central government that is
struggling to win the support of its people. If the US troops were to leave
hastily, the last ten years of war would be for naught.
More than other Presidents, Obama understands the
circumstances and conditions before him and allows them to inform his decision.
Lincoln was the same. Lincoln certainly did not enjoy Sherman's March or Grants
evisceration of the land around Vicksburg and Richmond. But he became convinced that as Grant said,
"only total and unconditional surrender," would suffice and form a lasting and
just peace. Obama is seeking the same. If he could simply wipe out the Taliban,
he would. The situation though demands that he negotiate and reconcile the different
parties. While advancing peace talks, he is also signaling that the enemy
cannot simply wait out NATO and the United States.
With a perception of reality based on facts, President Obama
has prosecuted his foreign policy agenda precisely, pragmatically, and out of
necessity. Inaugurated as a wartime President, Obama has lived up to the calling and been
equal to the task.
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