Obama’s tip for Trump

– President Barack Obama yesterday used his final address on global terror to defend his approach to the fight, calling for coalition-building to continue battlefield successes.

Highlighting the lines drawn during his eight years as commander-in-chief, Obama did not mention Donald Trump by name, but he clearly addressed his successor, who has yet to spell out his own counterterrorism strategy.

“Rather than offer false promises that we can eliminate terrorism by dropping more bombs or deploying more and more troops or fencing ourselves off from the rest of the world, we have to take a long view of the threat,” he said.

“And we have to pursue a smart strategy that can be sustained.”

Obama claimed a clear break from the strategy under former president George W Bush, highlighting the withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, from 180 000 to about 15 000 today. That number also includes advisers in Syria.

“Instead of trying to mount invasions wherever terrorists appear, we’ve built a network of partners,” he said.

Obama also defended his approach to fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, much of it centred around an intense air campaign directed from MacDill Air Force Base. –AFP