Obama's use of military power

[Dash]

Post is from a Muslim soldier I know. I found it interesting enough to post it here.

 

Overseas when I was watching parts of the chopped up images coming in of Obama's inauguration I joked among the group of folks and told em to pack their bags because we're gonna be living Afghanistan very soon. My first impressions and overall assessment based on what I read and thought was that Obama was systematically going to cave in to outside and internal pressures and pull out of both Afghanistan and Iraq and thus will begin a revisit to the notion of American "isolationism" that was experienced at the end of WWI.

 

and then, within a matter of days, Obama (somehow) had achieved something the Bush Administration could not or failed to do in its two terms: Pakistan took the fight to the Taliban and started to push back. And the results so far have given promise to preserving Pakistan as a state and its nuclear arsenal; Betuhl Messud is gone, the Taliban are now (not surprisingly) fighting one another to grab the chance to be the ruling tribal clan, and more importantly, Obama has allowed the US military to use direct action against those they are targeting...while at the same time gaining world support.

 

another example is Somalia. The Bush Administration opted to deffer to aiding Ethiopia and or cruise missile strikes in an effort to target Al-Qaeda leadership that are (which soon will be spoken of in the past tense if the present action escalates) present in and around that region. Obama, on the other hand, has used more direct action:

 

U.S. Kills Top Qaeda Militant in Southern Somalia

 

 

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: September 14, 2009

 

NAIROBI, Kenya — American commandos killed one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa in a daylight raid in southern Somalia on Monday, according to American and Somali officials, an indication of the Obama administration’s willingness to use combat troops strategically against Al Qaeda’s growing influence in the region.

 

Link

 

the end goal is the same, and yet means to obtain them are drastically different. and all this from a supposed liberally oriented Democratic President who has taken a step forward from the Bush Administration in the tactical use of American military power.

 

smart.

 

Smart indeed.

[bigdog17k]

I heard about this a loooooong time ago, this was something I'm pretty sure he said he was going to do in his campaign