Obama defends wars strategy
President says his counterterrorism efforts will work
TAMPA, Fla. — Closing out two terms as a president at war, Barack Obama staunchly defended his counterterrorism strategy as one that rejected torture, held to American values and avoided large-scale troop deployments, in an implicit effort to shape the strategy his successor might employ.
Obama came to MacDill Air Force Base, home to U.S. Special Operations Command and Central Command, to give his final speech on national security. He delivered a strident argument for his reliance on drone strikes and U.S. commandos rather than ground wars like those launched in Iraq and Afghanistan by his predecessor. Obama emphasized the need for the U.S. to uphold its values by respecting the rights of Muslims and trying terror suspects in civilian courts.
“We can get these terrorists and stay true to who we are,” Obama said.
“Rather than offer false promises that we can eliminate terrorism by dropping more bombs, or deploying more and more troops, or by fencing ourselves off from the rest of the world, we have to take a long view of the terrorist threat,” Obama told troops gathered in an airplane hangar. “We have to pursue a smart strategy that can be sustained.”
In describing the nature of the threat after eight years of his leadership, Obama sought to strike a careful balance, arguing at once that “violent extremism will be with us for years to come” and that terrorists “don’t pose an existential threat” to the U.S. He said unlike previous wars against other nations, it was unlikely this conflict would end with a “clearly defined victory.”
In a warning that appeared aimed at President-elect Donald Trump, who has called for barring Muslim immigrants temporarily, Obama said the U.S. doesn’t impose religious tests.