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Obama defends terrorism strategy in speech at MacDill

 
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the counterterrorism campaign Tuesday at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. [MONICA HERNDON   |   Times]
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the counterterrorism campaign Tuesday at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. [MONICA HERNDON | Times]
Published Dec. 7, 2016

TAMPA — President Barack Obama told more than 2,500 troops gathered at MacDill Air Force Base that the nation and those who serve it are safer as a result of his small-footprint, coalition-driven approach to addressing conflict in the Middle East.

Using what is likely his last major national security speech before leaving office to draft his legacy on the topic, Obama also made a point to contrast his efforts against the more confrontational approach espoused by President-elect Donald Trump during a tumultuous campaign.

Obama also spelled out a way forward that he says will be sustainable because it is both limited in scope and upholds American principles.

"I believe that we must never hesitate to act when necessary, including unilaterally when necessary, against any imminent threats to our people," Obama said. "But I have also insisted that it is unwise and unsustainable to ask our military to build nations on the other side of the world, or resolve their internal conflicts, particularly in places where our forces become a magnet for terrorists and insurgencies."

Before his speech, Obama, who has used U.S. commandos such as Navy SEALs, Army Delta Force, Green Berets, Rangers and Air Force and Marine special operators more than any other president, made his first visit to the headquarters of U.S. Special Operations Command, though he has been to MacDill previously.

There he met with Army Gen. Raymond A. "Tony" Thomas, commander of SOCom, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, and about 100 other members of the base community. He also thanked about 250 troops gathered at the base gym.

• • •

While there has been no large-scale attack on the homeland since Sept. 11, the threats remain, Obama said. But he said they are not existential.

"The terrorist threat is real and it is dangerous," Obama said. "But these terrorists want to cast themselves as the vanguard of a new world order. They are not. They are thugs and they are murderers, and they should be treated that way."

The United States "cannot follow the path of previous great powers who sometimes defeated themselves through overreach," Obama said. "By protecting our homeland while drawing down the number of troops serving in harm's way overseas, we helped save resources, but more importantly, we saved lives."

Ticking off what he said are his successes, Obama garnered huge applause when he mentioned the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. And reducing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq from 180,000 at their peak to about 15,000 today is saving American lives, he said.

In more than 15 years of war, the nation has paid a heavy price. To date, nearly 7,000 U.S. service members have died since Sept. 11 in wars that have cost the nation more than $4 trillion.

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But despite the cost in blood and money, the Middle East in particular remains in turmoil.

Millions of refugees have fled fighting in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, flooding neighboring countries and Europe. The ongoing bloodshed in Syria continues without end, with as many as a half-million deaths and millions displaced from their homes.

The fight against the Islamic State in Iraq is more successful, Obama said.

As a result of more than 16,000 U.S. and coalition airstrikes, the targeting of jihadi leaders and international efforts to train tens of thousands of Iraqi troops, the so-called caliphate claimed by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a shell of what it was the last time Obama visited MacDill in September 2014.

"ISIL has lost more than half its territory," said Obama, using an alternative acronym for the Sunni jihadi group. "ISIL has lost control of major population centers. Its morale is plummeting. Its recruitment is drying up. Its commanders and external plotters are being taken out, and local populations are turning against it."

Still, the battle for Mosul is a slow slog, with Iraqi forces making progress but at a tremendous cost as they engage the enemy in brutal house-to-house fighting among civilians.

Obama's approach, relying heavily on air power and U.S. special operations forces training and assistance, has been widely criticized as too little, too late, especially against ISIS, which grew out of the former al-Qaida in Iraq after U.S. forces left the nation in 2011.

Contrary to Trump's campaign claims that Obama created ISIS by withdrawing from Iraq, Obama said pulling out was not the cause.

First of all, Obama said keeping troops in Iraq was not an option, because by 2011, "Iraqis wanted our military presence to end, and they were unwilling to sign a new Status of Forces Agreement to protect our troops from prosecution if they were trying to defend themselves in Iraq."

Moreover, keeping U.S. troops in Iraq would not have reversed what Obama said were the real reasons for the rise of ISIS — "a government in Baghdad that pursued a sectarian agenda, a brutal dictator in Syria who lost control of large parts of the country, social media that reached a global pool of recruits and a hollowing out of Iraq's security forces, which were ultimately overrun in Mosul in 2014."

Had they remained, U.S. troops "would have lacked legal protections and faced a choice between remaining on bases or being drawn back into a sectarian conflict against the will of Iraq's elected government or Iraq's local populations," Obama said.

As for Syria, Obama also has taken heat for failing to act, especially not bombing the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after saying in 2012 that his use of chemical weapons would constitute a "red line" not to be crossed. Yet Assad, thanks to help from Russia and Iran, remains more powerful than at any point since the civil war began five years ago and is poised to retake Aleppo from rebels.

In his speech, Obama said, "We've eliminated Syria's declared chemical weapons program," without mentioning it was only after the Russians, who now have a great deal of influence over the country, stepped in to act.

Afghanistan has seen progress, with U.S. and coalition partners helping to train and equip some 320,000 Afghan troops, Obama said. But it remains a dangerous place, as the Taliban has regained territory in places like Helmand province.

• • •

As he thanked the troops and bid goodbye, Obama offered a six-point vision for the future of counterterrorism that contrasts with Trump's, who has called for sending more prisoners to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using waterboarding against enemies and more intensive military action. Obama's vision involved keeping the fight in perspective and limited — including drone strikes when necessary; upholding American values that prohibit torture or imprisonment in places such as Guantanamo; being more open with the public about what is taking place and owning up to mistakes, such as civilian casualties; having Congress authorize the use of force against Islamic State; not singling out Muslims as scapegoats; and continuing international diplomacy and not going into a shell.

"Remember what that flag stands for," Obama said. "For we depend upon you — the heirs to that legacy — our men and women in uniform, and the citizens who support you, to carry forward what is best in us — that commitment to a common creed. The confidence that right makes might, not the other way around."

Contact Howard Altman at haltman@tampabay.com or (813) 225-3112. Follow @haltman.