US President Barack Obama has vowed to move America away from being on “a permanent war footing”, even while aggressively pursuing terror networks through more targeted efforts and by building the capacity of foreign partners.
In his annual State of the Union address, Obama came down hard on America’s involvement in open-ended conflicts, declaring: “I will not send our troops into harm’s way unless it’s truly necessary; nor will I allow our sons and daughters to be mired in open-ended conflicts.” “We must fight the battles that need to be fought, not those that terrorists prefer from us — large-scale deployments that drain our strength and may ultimately feed extremism,” Obama said. His comments come in the wake of trepidation in India that the US’s scheduled withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan this year could jeopardise the war-torn nation’s stability and give a new lease of life to the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces.
“Together with our allies, we will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over,” Obama said, adding: “After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future.” He, however, indicated his readiness to retain a “small force” in the county for training and counterterrorism operations if only the Afghan Government signs a bilateral security agreement — something that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to do, saying it will be for his successor, chosen in the April election, to act upon.
Obama defended his new approach imposing “prudent limits on the use of drones”, saying: “We will not be safer if people abroad believe we strike within their countries without regard for the consequence.” He also renewed his call to Congress to lift the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and facilitate closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. He hailed the success of American diplomatic efforts vis-à-vis Syria and Iran. He also reaffirmed that his administration would “continue to focus on the Asia-Pacific, where we support our allies, shape a future of greater security and prosperity”.
In Syria, where he nearly declared war last year, Obama hailed the success of American diplomacy. The US threat of force is seeing the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons, while efforts continue with the international community to afford the Syrian people a future free of dictatorship, terror and fear, he said. Turning to Iran, Obama touched on the recent encouraging developments and wanted diplomacy to be given a chance to succeed, bluntly telling the Congress that he would veto any new set of sanctions against Tehran at this juncture, thereby threatening to derail the ongoing negotiations.
With mid-term Congressional elections due in November, Obama used the better part of his sixth State of the Union address to lay out an extensive domestic agenda, ranging from measures to raise minimum wages to bringing back American jobs, and urging Congress to pass the long-pending immigration reform legislation.
“American diplomacy, backed by pressure, has halted the progress of Iran’s nuclear programme – and rolled parts of that programme back – for the very first time in a decade,” he said, adding Tehran is beginning to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium and stopping installation advanced centrifuges. While making the push for diplomatic efforts, Obama warned Iran’s leaders that if they failed to seize this opportunity, he himself would take the lead to clamp more sanctions and be ready to exercise all options to make sure Iran does not build a nuclear weapon.