Obama: We stand for more lasting peace
He told graduating cadets
at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point that after the nation's
"long season of war and divisions about how to move forward," they now
would represent America with the duty "not only to protect our country,
but to do what is right and just."
Under fire from the
political right for what critics call diminishing U.S. global influence,
Obama offered a robust defense of his foreign policy as the pragmatic
and most effective expression of America's leadership role in the world.
"I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being," he said, referring to a tenet of conservative ideology.
"But what makes us
exceptional is not flouting international norms and the rule of law;
it's our willingness to affirm them through our actions," Obama said in
arguing that true leadership involves not only having the world's most
powerful military, but in doing the right thing.
"America must always lead
on the world stage," Obama said, and the military "always will be the
backbone of that leadership," but U.S. military action "cannot be the
only -- or even primary -- component of our leadership in every
instance."
In a sign of the
sentiments of the cadets, Obama got big applause when he noted they were
the first West Point graduates in more than a decade unlikely to be
stationed in a war zone.
Since he took office,
Obama noted, America had ended the Iraq war and was preparing to end the
Afghanistan conflict, decimated al Qaeda's leadership in the border
region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and eliminated Osama bin Laden.
Now it was time to shift
foreign policy to combat a continuing terrorist threat that "no longer
comes from a centralized al Qaeda leadership," but from "decentralized
al Qaeda affiliates and extremists, with agendas focused in the
countries where they operate."
"This lessens the
possibility of large-scale 9/11-style attacks against the homeland, but
heightens the danger of U.S. personnel overseas being attacked, as we
saw in Benghazi," Obama said in reference to the 2012 assault that
killed four Americans at a U.S. compound in Libya.
"It heightens the danger
to less defensible targets, as we saw in a shopping mall in Nairobi,"
he said of the attack last year in Kenya. "So we have to develop a
strategy that matches this diffuse threat; one that expands our reach
without sending forces that stretch our military thin, or stir up local
resentments."
Returning to a theme
he's visited throughout his presidency, Obama said he would continue to
push for closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay
"because American values and legal traditions don't permit the
indefinite detention of people beyond our borders."
Overall, Obama said,
"America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world,"
and he contended that "those who argue otherwise -- who suggest that
America is in decline, or has seen its global leadership slip away --
are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics."
"The question we face --
the question each of you will face -- is not whether America will lead,
but how we will lead, not just to secure our peace and prosperity, but
also extend peace and prosperity around the globe," Obama told the
cadets.
The President's speech
came a day after he spelled out a plan that would leave nearly 10,000
troops in Afghanistan at year's end but essentially end the broader U.S.
military commitment there by the end of 2016.
"We can not only
responsibly end our war in Afghanistan and achieve the objectives that
took us to war in the first place, we'll also be able to begin a new
chapter in the story of American leadership around the world," Obama
said in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday.
Afghanistan President
Hamid Karzai welcomed Obama's announcement of planned troop levels,
saying in a statement posted Wednesday on his official website that his
government was "grateful to the international community for its
assistance and remains confident" in the ability of the expanded and
NATO-trained Afghan forces to protect the country and its people.
Although Obama enjoyed
high-profile foreign-policy successes at the beginning of his time in
office, including the military mission to find and kill bin Laden, he's
come under harsh criticism recently for what opponents say is a passive
approach abroad.
They cite his record in
Syria, where he backed away from airstrikes after President Bashar
al-Assad's regime was reported to have used chemical weapons on
citizens. Congress balked at approving the military force, leaving Obama
to instead negotiate a deal that would remove the chemical stockpiles
from al-Assad's control but keep al-Assad himself in power amid an
ongoing civil war.
In his speech Wednesday,
Obama said there was no military solution to the Syrian civil war, and
added that he will "work with Congress to ramp up support for those in
the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and a
brutal dictator."
Earlier, Secretary of
State John Kerry defended U.S. policy for Syria, including the deal
struck to get chemical weapons out of the country.
Speaking to CNN's "New
Day," he said he found it difficult to believe that critics would have
preferred a military strike and hurting the al-Assad regime temporarily.
He said that 92% of Syria's chemical weapons have been removed, and the
other 8% are under control, waiting to be removed.
"It's remarkable to me
that people simply want to refuse to accept that we're better off
getting all of the weapons out than striking for one or two days and
doing damage to some of them," Kerry said.
Critics of Obama's
foreign policy also have said the President's clear assertion that
military force is off the table in Ukraine sends the wrong message to
other countries -- namely China -- that have their own territorial
disputes with neighbor states.
The United States and
its allies have imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its incursion
into Ukraine, though that step hasn't done much to quiet the arguments
coming from Obama's detractors.
On Wednesday, Obama
reiterated his policy that the United States will used military force,
"unilaterally if necessary," when its people are threatened, its
livelihood is at stake or allies are in danger, but he said the
threshold was higher when global issues "do not pose a direct threat" to
the nation.
"In such circumstances,
we should not go it alone," he said. "Instead, we must mobilize allies
and partners to take collective action. We have to broaden our tools to
include diplomacy and development; sanctions, isolation; appeals to
international law and -- if just, necessary, and effective --
multilateral military action."
Such a collective
approach "is more likely to succeed, more likely to be sustained, and
less likely to lead to costly mistakes," Obama said.
Obama last spoke broadly
about his foreign policy during a trip to Asia in April, defending
himself against those who say his policy lacks a discernable direction.
"You hit singles; you
hit doubles; every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run,"
Obama said in Manila, lashing out at those who argue for greater use of
military force in conflicts abroad.
"Why is it that everyone
is so eager to use military force?" he asked then. "After we have just
gone through a decade of war at enormous costs to our troops and our
budget. And what is it exactly that these critics would have
accomplished?"
According to aides,
Obama's West Point speech kicks off a broader foreign policy push that
will carry into his upcoming trip to Europe that includes a G7 summit in
Brussels and a visit to Poland, designed to reassure Eastern European
allies after Russia's intervention in Ukraine.
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