Obama’s liberal-rhetoric foreign policy continued Bush-era imperial military operations.

Evidence

Obama claimed that his policy was a shift to the realist tradition of great power geopolitics. As he put it, “The truth is that my foreign policy is actually a return to the traditional bipartisan realistic policy of George Bush’s father, of John F. Kennedy, and in some ways of Ronald Reagan.” Yet, as we saw above, during Bush’s second term the neoconservatives were also gravitating toward this position because of the failure of their approach in Afghanistan and Iraq. Soon after taking office, Obama deployed 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, expanded the war into Pakistan (through the “Af-Pak” strategy), tried to pressure Iraq into granting an extension of the US occupation (which failed), carried out drone attacks and “black ops” in Yemen and Somalia, and participated in the NATO war on a former ally in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. This should not come as a surprise, since his inaugural staff included Bush personnel like defense secretary Bob Gates and General Petraeus, as well as Democratic Party hawks like Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden. The Obama administration’s strategy consisted of a return to multilateralism, using multilateral institutions to incorporate and subordinate international and regional rivals. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 513

Categorization

• XREF: Pays off reader’s saved ch10 claims that Obama’s realism masked continuity of Bush-era warfare and that regime change in leadership does not break the enemy-making machine. — connects to: Obama’s realist framing masked a continuation of Bush-era imperial warfare — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 501; Biden’s return to liberal Islamophobia continues imperial drone and Israel policies. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 532; Obama’s multilateral realism was a continuity of Bush-era imperial strategy — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 501 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Obama continued and expanded Bush’s imperial wars despite softer rhetoric #corroborates (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 579
• Obama’s election rebranded rather than ended American imperial policy #corroborates (0.98) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 495
• Bush to Obama was a rhetorical shift masking unchanged imperial fundamentals. #corroborates (0.95)
• Obama’s realist framing masked continued military expansion across many fronts #corroborates (0.92)
• Obama continued the War on Terror with rhetoric rather than swords #corroborates (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 296
• Obama continued the War on Terror through rhetorical seduction. #corroborates (0.85)
• Obama’s defense guidance continued the War on Terror via drones and special forces #corroborates (0.82) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 433
• Homegrown terrorism panic let Obama continue Bush-era war policies #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 499
• Obama’s conciliatory rhetoric masked continued drone and surveillance warfare #exemplifies (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 299