US President Barack Obama says American military personnel
are carrying out “counter-terrorism” operations in 15 countries across the
world.
In a biannual statement to Congress released on Monday,
Obama laid out Washington’s strategy in its so-called War on Terror, indicating
that the war had no specific timeline.
“It is not possible to know at this time the precise scope
or the duration of the deployments of US Armed Forces necessary to counter
terrorist threats to the United States,” the president said.
Obama noted that he ordered the operations in accordance
with public law, as well as the War Powers Resolution, which allows him to
commit the country to an armed conflict without mandate from Congress.
He has tasked American combat forces with specific missions
in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Somalia, Yemen, Djibouti, Libya, Cuba,
Niger, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Egypt, Jordan, and Kosovo,
The American head of state noted that if necessary, he was
ready to “direct additional measures to protect US citizens and interests” in
response to “terrorist threats.”
The announcement comes as a surprise to many because
President Obama won the White House battle seven years ago after pledging to
end the wars started by his predecessor, George W. Bush.
But now the country’s first ever black president, who won
the Noble Peace Prize in 2009, is about to leave his office as the only
president in US history to have served two complete terms with the nation at
war.
According to New York Times, Obama managed to reduce troop
levels in Iraq and Afghanistan from Bush’s 200,000 to nearly 15,000, but still
opened new fronts in Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
“Obama thinks of war as an instrument he has to use very
reluctantly. But we’re waging these long, rather strange wars. We’re killing
lots of people. We’re taking casualties,” says Eliot Cohen, a military
historian at Johns Hopkins University.
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