Obama is Against Dumb Wars But is Always Willing to Start His Own - Reason (blog)
Obama, despite his proclivity for ending "dumb" wars and such, is a big fan of deterrence. For example, after withdrawing all U. S. combat troops from Iraq, he insisted many times that he was committed Iraq's security. Yet it was not until the Islamic State had taken over Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, that Obama began his air war against the terrorists. In Syria, after the dictator Bashar al-Assad was confirmed to have used chemical weapons -- crossing Obama's "red line" -- the White House backed down, settling for a Russian-backed deal to remove Syria's stockpiles. Obama has continued to stay out of the civil war, despite pleading from Arab allies to intervene, and recent evidence that Syria is still conducting chemical attacks on its opposition. It's not fully clear to me that Obama has been particularly good at ending "dumb wars," though he was certainly willing to join in one super-dumb action in Libya as well faux-saber-rattle over Syria in a way that arguably made everything worse in... Obama's people tried to extend the U. S. stay in Iraq past the deadline negotiated by George W. Bush and wouldja believe we've still got troops in Afghanistan and almost certainly will til the end times. Source: reason.com
