Opinion
Analysis of the U.S. National Security Outlook under Obama
By Emmanuel Musaazi
U.S. President Barack Obama making a point during one in a series of meetings in the Situation Room of the White House discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, May 1, 2011. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon is pictured at right. PHOTO/Pete Souza
U.S. President Barack Obama has presided over one of the shrewdest and most pro-America national security policy in recent times. Unlike previous American presidents who sometimes triumphed or failed on the high altar of treaties or ally rapprochement, Obama more than any president in recent history has led almost solely on the motivation of the American agenda.
The more hawkish traditional types see Obama as a threat to an established order which has endured since the end of the Second World War.
Obama’s argument may be that he came to office in difficult times when the very essence and existence of the United States of America was on the line hence the “out of the box” unorthodox approach to solving foreign policy and national security concerns among others.
Question: Is the Obama doctrine on national security just a more radical leftist outlook or a forward looking pragmatic course of action best suited for the times?
Obama seems to have discarded the hitherto bipartisan “one size fit all” American national security policy prescription for a more pragmatic “case by case” approach which he alluded to as candidate Obama more than four years ago in 2007-2008.
In response to Senator McCain in the 2008 presidential debates, then Senator Obama said “if the United States has al-Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we would take them out.” By showing a willingness to put the American interest paramount and sacrosanct to the interests of allies, those in the Obama camp viewed the response as a demonstration of Obama’s patriotism and suitability for the Commander-in-chief role.
On the other hand, given that Pakistan was/is an ally on “the war on terror”, the suggestion was roundly repudiated and ridiculed by Democrats and Republicans steeped in the ways of old, with then Senator Joe Biden (ironically now Obama’s Vice President and member of his national security team) describing such a posture as naive.
