19 - Retrenchment, Engagement, and War: The Obama Years, 2009–2017

Summary

The Barack Obama administration insisted many of America’s problems with other nations were the fault of the Bush administration. This was true in the case of Iraq, but such thinking ignores the aims and interests of other states and the ideologies driving them. The administration launched a failed “reset” of relations with Russia, a war for regime change against Libya that repeated many Bush mistakes, endured the Syrian “red line” chemical weapons use debacle, and mounted a troop “surge” in Afghanistan while withdrawing from Iraq too early, feeding the environment that created Islamic State. Obama’s administration subverted democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and launched the Third Iraq War against Islamic State while acknowledging it would be passed to the next administration. It signed the JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran in order to delay Iran’s development of nuclear weapons until Obama left office. John Kerry admitted publicly that this deal would allow Iran to fund terrorist actions abroad.