CFR Update 5/24 Obama Resets Terrorism Fight

Daily News Brief May 24, 2013

Top of the Agenda: Obama Resets Terrorism Fight

President Barack Obama defended his administration's efforts to fight terrorists overseas (ABCNews)

 

as "proportional" and "just," but said he would seek to curtail drone use, limit presidential war powers, and work to close the Guantanamo prison as part of a gradual winding down of the fight against terrorism that began in 2001. Obama's proposals were welcomed in the two countries most affected by drone strikes (AP)

 

, Pakistan and Yemen, although Pakistan says the strikes should stop completely.

Analysis

"The enduring impact of Mr Obama's speech will not be what he says, but whether the new policies are reflected in how drone strikes are conducted

 

, and whether his administration will finally and faithfully engage with the public, more than a decade after the operations began," writes CFR's Micah Zenko in the Financial Times.

"We can envisage a world in which this war is over

 

, and yet our counter-terrorism continues 'smartly and proportionally.' It is a tough and usually lonely task to make these calls. Which is why a president is ultimately accountable for them. Today, he stood accountable; and he neither shirked from responsibility nor apologized for the inherent tragedy of any armed conflict," writes Andrew Sullivan on The Dish.

"President Obama's speech on Thursday was the most important statement on counterterrorism policy

 

since the 2001 attacks, a momentous turning point in post-9/11 America. For the first time, a president stated clearly and unequivocally that the state of perpetual warfare that began nearly 12 years ago is unsustainable for a democracy and must come to an end in the not-too-distant future," says this New York Times editorial.