'Obama at War': A Strong Look at Weak Foreign Policy
The new Frontline documentary Obama at War is mostly about Obama trying not to go to war. Correspondent Martin Smith lays out, in a calm, thoughtful way, how the Syrian uprising over the past few years against dictator president Bashar al-Assad helped give rise to the power of ISIS-led terrorism as the United States stood by, acting indecisively when at all.
That’s the hour’s thesis, and it’s a compellingly skeptical, even tragic one. The film uses the recent history of Syria to makes its points, starting with the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings followed by Assad’s vicious attacks on citizens in his country protesting for better treatment. As the country suffered many deaths and news of brutal oppression spread, the documentary shifts to the United States, where President Obama was weighing moral and political choices.
Once Assad began using chemical weapons against his own people in 2013, the line had been crossed that Obama had pledged to take action to halt. But as various members of the military, as well as former U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, tell Frontline’s Smith, Obama wavered in that commitment, preventing military action he’d initially ordered up to wait until he had the approval of Congress.
The documentary argues that this was a strategic effort on the president’s part to do nothing — he didn’t like the idea of committing U.S. troops or any sort of lengthy involvement in that area, and knew that the intransigent Congress that loathes him would not support him, and he could step aside from Syria with a “What can I do?” shrug.
Meanwhile, of course, the Syrian rebels felt betrayed by America and other Western allies, and, attacked and weakened, were ready to hear the promises and actions of terrorist cells that coalesced as ISIS.
Obama at War suggests that America found itself in a situation it never dreamed it would be in: Allied with the dictator Assad against ISIS. It’s a mess that next president, whoever she or he may be, will have to untangle. One conclusion a viewer must reach if you accept Frontline’s arguments is that Obama’s foreign policy in this area will be a permanent blot on his legacy.
Frontline: Obama at War airs Tuesday night on PBS. Check your local listings.
