Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Barack Obama

  • Obama to Consider Deeper Involvement in Syria’s Civil War

    Steady military advances by loyalist forces against rebel units across Syria have once again forced the Obama Administration and its European allies to consider arming an insurgency that is desperate for reinforcements.

    Senior American national-security officials are scheduled to meet with the president at the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday to discuss the Syrian crisis, a meeting advocates for intervention hope will result in a mass supply of arms and ammunition to those seeking to topple Bashar Assad’s government.

    Members of the administration will reportedly consider a range of options to bolster the rebel forces, from providing more sophisticated weaponry to moderate opposition factions to launching a discriminate campaign of airstrikes that would target Syria’s fleet of fighter jets and helicopters. A no-fly zone over territory that is controlled by the opposition is still being viewed as a distant option, given the amount of risk that American pilots would face from Syria’s relatively modern, Russian air defenses. (more…)

  • Obama Rejects Increasing Support for Syria’s Rebels

    In a stunning disclosure of American policy on Syria, Foreign Policy magazine has learned that President Barack Obama rejected a request from his own national security advisors to provide military equipment to the Middle Eastern country’s rebels.

    The items that were discussed were nonlethal, meaning that shipping weapons and ammunition to the rebels who are battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was never on the table. But night vision goggles and body armor that could have made its way into the hands of Syria’s rebels would have nonetheless assisted the opponents of Assad in the fight by making them more effective in the field.

    The fact that President Obama refused to expand American assistance to the Syrian resistance is not, in itself, entirely startling. His administration has gone against the wishes of its national-security establishment in the past, most notably when the White House shot down a plan to funnel weapons to vetted opposition groups.

    It is nevertheless surprising to learn that President Obama does not agree with some of his very top advisors, again. (more…)

  • Despite Lacking Substance, Obama’s Israel Visit Impressed

    President Barack Obama wrapped up his Middle East trip this weekend defying the expectations of many, impressing millions of Israelis with his comments and emphasizing how important it is for Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs alike to give the peace process another chance.

    From a substantive point of view, the American president’s trip was lacking in detail. No new peace initiative was given to the Israelis or Palestinians. Unlike in previous encounters with both sides, Obama made it a policy on this trip to stick with talking about the prospects for peace rather than diving into it. Thrusting himself in the middle of another attempt at Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, particularly when the trust deficit is so high between the parties, was the last thing that he wanted to do.

    Yet a lack of substance does not mean that the visit was purely ceremonial, nor does it mean that Obama’s discussions with political leaders in Jerusalem and Ramallah were a waste of time. (more…)

  • Obama Plans “Maintenance Trip” to Israel

    Since the White House announced that President Barack Obama will travel to Israel for his first overseas trip since he was reelected in November, commentators have jumped to the newspapers and airwaves to tackle the questions that everyone has been asking: what does he plan to do, what should he do and who will he meet?

    The second question, courtesy of the White House press team, is now answered. President Obama will fly into Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The right-wing leader won reelection himself in January and formed a coalition with centrist parties last week.

    As he did during his presidential campaign five years ago, Obama will make a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum. He would also like to make a stop at the Church of the Nativity, one of the most holy places for Christians worldwide.

    After speaking with Netanyahu and giving a speech to thousands of Israelis in Jerusalem, the president will make a brief appearance in the West Bank to discuss the Middle East peace process with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas before dining with King Abdullah II of Jordan on the last leg of his trip.

    For Israelis, Obama’s visit will be historic. It will be the first time that he has set foot on Israeli soil as president. (more…)

  • Obama, Karzai Agree to Accelerate Troop Drawdown

    Presidents Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai met at the White House in Washington DC on Friday to discuss the future of American troop deployment in Afghanistan. Cementing a durable and legal foreign troop presence before NATO’s mission officially expires in 2014 has been a constant weight on the backs of American officials responsible for the Afghanistan portfolio. That weight has been partly lifted as the two leaders agreed to accelerate the drawdown of American forces.

    Before the meeting, White House officials said that no final decision about future of American troop deployment in Afghanistan would be made. This didn’t stop commentators from speculating about a number that could come out of the talks, however.

    If press reports are to be believed, the Obama Administration and the military are once again fighting it out among themselves over how best to wrap up the Afghan war — a divide that is reminiscent of the weeks proceeding the surge of 2010. The White House asked the Defense Department to pare down its original request for between 15- and 20,000 troops, viewing that option as both too costly and cumbersome. (more…)

  • Barack Obama Deserves Second Term

    Regardless of whether or not this presidential election is a referendum or a choice, President Barack Obama deserves to be reelected on both counts. On the economy and foreign affairs, the Democrat has shown himself to be a better candidate than any of Mitt Romney’s public personas.

    The first issue of Barack Obama’s presidency was his handling of the economic collapse which is also his strongest case for reelection. The crisis left a classic liquidity trap in which demand had dropped to very low levels and interest rates had already been lowered to the minimum. This required an immediate Keynesian approach.

    By passing the Recovery Act and injecting $787 billion into the American economy only three weeks after his inauguration, the president stopped the ongoing hemorrhaging and quickly stabilized the markets. Despite near unanimous Republican political stonewalling, the president got billions of dollars into green energy investment, health information technology, middle-class tax relief and more.

    Investigators found minimal fraud and waste and given the impact it had on the economy, both short and long-term, the spending in sum appears to have been worth it: The economy rebounded with the stimulus saving or creating around two and a half million jobs. The recovery only really slowed down once governors began to institute austerity at the state level and Congress refused to renew any form of stimulus because of the perceived failure of the first round as well as its large impact on the deficit.

    However, the Recovery Act was uncommonly large because the slump was too — and it turns out more massive than the stimulus. The oft cited “promise” that unemployment would be at 6 percent right now is a canard, citing a projection, not a promise, by the transition team based on the belief that gross domestic product loss in late 2008 was 5.4 percent. It turned out that the contraction rate was 8.9 percent — unheard of since the Great Depression. Thus, a larger stimulus was economically necessary, though politically impossible.

    Having no stimulus? That would have resulted in a Second Great Depression, permanently less revenue and a larger weight in the safety net — much worse for the deficit than temporary spending.

    We know this because countercyclical spending has been economic orthodoxy since the 1930s. Democratic and Republican presidents alike have always spent money in some form to juice a down economy. When they haven’t, it has stagnated. This creates a natural deficit but that’s okay — interest rates are low during liquidity traps and are historically so right now.

    (Given that the task of economic stimulus is evidently incomplete, pursuing it or not remains the choice for the future.)

    Other issues are dwarfed by the president’s averting of economic catastrophe, yet still have large importance — especially in contrast to the plans of Mitt Romney and the congressional Republicans. (more…)

  • Atlantic Sentinel Responds to Final Obama-Romney Debate

    Incumbent president Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, debated foreign policy in Boca Raton, Florida tonight in what was their third and last televised debate before November’s election.

    The Atlantic Sentinel‘s Christopher Whyte said the debate was “not a blowout for either candidate.” Both held their positions well on a number of fronts, he said. (more…)

  • Atlantic Sentinel Responds to Second Obama-Romney Debate

    President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, met in Hempstead, New York on Tuesday night for their second televised debate before November’s election.

    The stakes were particularly high for the incumbent whose lackluster performance in the first debate in Colorado two weeks ago disappointed many Democrats. (more…)

  • Benghazi Attack Aftermath Threatens Obama’s Reelection

    Republicans in the House of Representatives increased their pressure on the Obama Administration on Tuesday over the September 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, sending a strongly worded letter (PDF) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and ordering her to cooperate with the Congress.

    The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, headed by Republican congressman Darrell Issa, has opened up its own investigation into the attack with a special focus on why security at the consulate was so weak prior to the assassination of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. (more…)

  • Atlantic Sentinel Responds to First Obama-Romney Debate

    Democratic president Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, met for their first in three televised debates in the city of Denver tonight, the capital of Colorado which is one of nine states that can sway November’s election in either candidate’s favor.

    The Atlantic Sentinel‘s Steve Keller said “this was a really wonky debate.”

    President Obama seemed to go in with an eye toward playing defense and Mitt Romney playing offense. Both did so effectively.

    Left-wingers were disappointed Obama didn’t “take it” to Romney and try to knock him out. Keller, however, wasn’t surprised Obama came across as more professorial. (more…)

  • Republicans Press Obama for Clarity on Libya Attack

    On September 11, the American diplomatic community suffered a horrible loss. The nation’s ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was found dead in the United States consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, apparently succumbed to smoke from fire and heavy weapons that were used in attacking the building. 

    The personal tragedy of that day has snowballed into one of the most politically embarrassing controversies that the Obama Administration has faced during its tenure. In the weeks since the attack transpired, the tune of White House officials has changed several times on what exactly caused the death of Chris Stevens and on whether the attack was a deliberate and coordinated act of terrorism.

    In the early days of the investigation, administration officials were quick to cite the production of an anti-Islam film as the reason for the violence in Benghazi. Susan Rice, the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, carried that message with her last weekend on the Sunday morning talk shows, telling CBS News’ Bob Schieffer that the assault on the consulate building was carried out in the heat of the moment by a group of extremists who sought to take advantage of the protests. (more…)

  • Obama Stays Above Political Fray Over Consulate Attack

    In an election campaign that is dominated by the economy, slow job growth and the nation’s fiscal crisis, this week’s attack on the American consulate in Benghazi put international affairs and national security back on the agenda, at least for a short while.

    Incumbent president Barack Obama is confronted with one of the most tragic diplomatic crises in recent American history as his ambassador to Libya and three more Americans were killed in a raid on the consulate building.

    Protests also erupted outside embassies in Egypt and Yemen.

    It is not uncommon for American diplomats to attract agitation. Locals who disagree with American foreign policy often take to the streets and protest in front of embassy grounds.

    What was different about this week’s unrest was their quick descent into chaos and violence. (more…)

  • Afghanistan Partnership Leaves Many Doubts

    In what proved to be a very busy day for the White House, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday. After being met and greeted by Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador to the country, upon landing, the president quickly made his way to the presidential palace in Kabul to attend a joint signing ceremony with Hamid Karzai, thereby extending the American-Afghan relationship into 2024.

    For President Obama, who is preparing for a tough reelection fight over the summer against the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, ceremony was an opportunity to not only convince Afghans that the United States would stand by them in the future but to assure the war weary American electorate that the fighting is close to ending.

    Addressing the American people by television, Obama said, “we’ve traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war. Yet here, in the predawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of new day on the horizon.”

    Afghanistan, like the war in Iraq five years ago, has become a battle that is increasingly unpopular at home. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released last month reported that two-thirds of Americans surveyed no longer thought the war was worth fighting.

    Republicans, usually more hawkish in national-security policy, are split over how much longer the United States should stay in. Swing voters, the constituency that will determine the entire presidential election in November, are more determined than ever to pull all American troops out as soon as possible. The American people will thus hold the president to his 2014 withdrawal promise, a date that he himself imposed.

    Obama’s speech was also aimed at the Afghan people. Though tired of the foreign presence in their country, they are just as concerned about what the future holds once NATO troops have left.

    The signing of the US-Afghan strategic partnership agreement was designed to mitigate much of that worry, committing the United States and its NATO allies to a continuation of support for the Afghan government after 2014.

    Afghans may not take much solace in the alliance, however, since the document is short on details and questions regarding any future troop presence in Afghanistan still needs to be negotiated.

    The Taliban insurgency, in the meantime, will be sure to test the strength of the civilian government in Kabul any case. The Afghan people will expect their security forces, hampered with logistical and command problems, to respond to any such attacks quickly and efficiently.

    President Obama and the American people are ready to get out. The Afghan government and people will have to live with the outcome.

  • Netanyahu, Obama Split on How to Deter Iran

    Their personal and professional relationship is defined by pundits in both Israel and the United States as “frosty,” but that could become a whole lot worse on Monday, when President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit down together at the White House.

    The issue that has put a stain on the relationship the most — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — will most likely receive little attention. Iran’s nuclear ambitions are at the top of the agenda. (more…)

  • Taliban Talks Could Hurt Obama’s Reelection Chances

    Very rarely do we receive good news from Afghanistan. Insurgent ambushes and bomb attacks continue to claim the lives of innocent Afghan civilians every day. But as peace talks between the Taliban and the United States are reportedly progressing, the prospect for a negotiated end to the ten year-old war may finally be in the making.

    The strongest political irritant to NATO operations in Afghanistan has been the Taliban’s consistent rebuffing of peace overtures regardless of where those requests came from. President Barack Obama’s announcement that American soldiers would be winding down their campaign by 2014 likely provided the Taliban leaders with an incentive to fight for another three years before aiming directly at Hamid Karzai’s civilian government.

    Yet with the Taliban facing a number of drawbacks over the past eighteen months — thousands of operatives killed or captured, a movement fracturing on the Pakistani side of the border and an insurgent leadership that is at times disconnected from its field units — the movement’s top members may be reconsidering that assumption.

    As in any negotiation process, the exact details of the talks with the Taliban are being kept under the wraps. The New York Times has managed to publish some of the major items being debated between the two sides nevertheless. The hope is that movement on these issues will create trust on both sides to discuss an eventual peace agreement.

    One proposal under review is a traditional quid pro quo that will surely be controversial for members in the United States Congress — the release of five senior Taliban prisoners from the Guantánamo Bay interrogation facility in Cuba. In return for that sacrifice, the Taliban would officially open a political office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, setting up shop in order to further explore the diplomatic option in the coming months.

    The White House has already come out to denounce this arrangement, describing reports of Guantánamo transfers as “not accurate.”

    For a president who is just starting to get his reelection campaign in synch, releasing five Taliban officials who had close links with Al Qaeda operatives would be a difficult thing to sell to the electorate.

    Republican presidential candidate and presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, who has been at his most passionate when bashing Obama’s foreign policy record, would exploit this move as an opportunity to further put his opponent on the defensive. Lawmakers who are unsympathetic to any Taliban overtures could view the prisoner release as a dangerous breach of American national security, if not an unnecessary capitulation before negotiations are even conducted in a serious manner.

    The Obama Administration, then, has a problem on its hands. It clearly wants to end the war and bring American soldiers home but doing so will entail confidence building measures that may weaken its image during a hostile election season. Will the president attempt to secure his reelection, or travel down the long and unpredictable road of negotiating with an enemy that, if successful, could end America’s longest war in modern history?  As a war-time president who has invested a considerable amount of time on looking for ways to end the war, one can only hopes he chooses the latter.