For a president who came into office repudiating his predecessor’s foreign policy and vowing to end two wars, President Obama leaves office with the world in chaos and the US military involved in three conflicts.
During his January 2014 State of the Union Address, President Obama stated, “When I took office, nearly 180,000 Americans were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, all our troops are out of Iraq. More than 60,000 of our troops have already come home from Afghanistan. With Afghan forces now in the lead for their own security, our troops have moved to a support role. Together with our allies, we will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over.”
This bold pronouncement by the president was premature. Later that summer, ISIS boldly overran Iraqi forces in northern and western Iraq. ISIS seized a vast amount of territory and forced the president to send the US military back into Iraq.
