Retreating Under the Cover of Drones

Thanks largely to American public opinion, President Barack Obama no longer has a Roman-style legion he can deploy to distant battlefields. He has withdrawn US troops from Iraq, as promised, despite that country’s volatile sectarian divisions. He is removing US ground troops from Afghanistan on a 2014 timeline, with that country likely to spin out of US control in the years ahead. At this writing, he is trying to avoid direct US intervention in Syria, although an escalation has begun. He repeatedly expresses his hope to achieve “some nation-building at home,” combined with a greater emphasis on diplomacy, or “soft power,” abroad.