But as the second of those two wars winds down, Obama finds himself struggling to articulate what role he sees the U.S. playing on the world stage for the remainder of his second term. The ongoing conflict in Syria and Russia’s threatening moves have also raised questions about how the U.S. can credibly threaten consequences against international foes when Obama so clearly wants to stay out of another large-scale military endeavor.
The president’s surprise trip to Afghanistan Sunday marked the start of a concerted White House effort that aims to answer some of those questions. Even as Obama heralded a drawdown of U.S. forces that will bring the war to “a responsible end” later this year, he said it was likely that a small contingent of U.S. forces would stay behind for counterterrorism missions, as well as to train Afghan security forces.
“Because after all the sacrifices we’ve made, we want to preserve the gains that you have helped to win and we’re going to make sure that Afghanistan can never again, ever, be used again to launch an attack against our country,” Obama said during remarks to hundreds of U.S. troops at Bagram Air Field, the main American base in Afghanistan.