Is President Obama’s Whac-A-Mole Strategy Working?

Fareed Zakaria, Gazette-Mail/Washington Post: Obama’s Whac-A-Mole strategy

NEW YORK — It has become conventional wisdom to note that Barack Obama has failed in his efforts to extricate America from military conflicts in the Middle East.

Having promised to end these wars, he has, in the past year, expanded American interventions in Iraq, Syria and other countries. The troop drawdown in Afghanistan has slowed to a trickle. “Obama’s legacy,” says Gene Healy of the Cato Institute, is clear — “endless war.”

The New York Times’ Mark Landler noted in May that Obama had just “passed a somber, little-noticed milestone: He has now been at war longer than Mr. Bush, or any other American president.”

But these characterizations treat all military activity as alike, in a way that blurs, rather than sharpens, the picture. When Obama entered the White House, 180,000 American troops were engaged in active military combat in two theaters, Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal of both wars was to establish political order in these countries — indeed, to create functioning liberal democracies.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The Islamic State grew and metastasised during President Obama's term of office .... so I am not convinced that this "whac-a-mole" strategy is actually working. And as for the other conflicts .... the Taliban now control more territory in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion after 9/11 ... and Al Qaeda is still around. Fareed Zakaria may be comfortable with President Obama's war strategy .... but I am with the American people on this one .... Poll: Majority Of Americans Do Not Believe President Obama Has A Clear Plan for The Islamic State (November 23, 2015)