Barack Obama perhaps made the most important speech as president of the United States when he told graduates at the prestigious West Point military academy that America’s trigger-happy responses to events around the world have done the country more harm than good

“Since World War II, some of our most costly mistakes came not from our restraint, but from our willingness to rush into military adventures—without thinking through the consequences,” Obama said yesterday.

Obama was specifically referring to the Iraq war, the consequences of which are still being borne by Iraq in more ways than one. Aside from the fact that the war was conducted on the premise that Iraq was hoarding ‘weapons of mass destruction’ – which was later proven to be totally baseless – George W. Bush’s misadventure also resulted in hundreds of thousands of lives being lost.

The war also left an entire generation scarred and opened up Iraq for a vicious sectarian conflict that is still continuing. To make matters worse, the so-called democratic set-up in Iraq is so fragile that it requires constant support from America and other Western nations to keep it going.

Obama’s speech yesterday will no doubt resonate well with the critics of American foreign policy and also the people of those nations who have been at the receiving end of the US military machine.

 “To say that we have an interest in pursuing peace and freedom beyond our borders is not to say that every problem has a military solution,” Obama said.

Although he said the military was the “backbone” of America’s superpower status, he added that “it cannot be the only, or even primary, component of our leadership in every instance.”

“Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail,” Obama said, literally hitting the nail on the head about what is wrong with US foreign policy.

Under Obama’s leadership, the US is withdrawing most of its troops from Afghanistan, a move that will save the country billions of dollars in the long run and earn it some much-needed goodwill.

America fought a two decade-long war in Vietnam ostensibly to stop the spread of communism – an exercise which cost more than a million lives, which included about 60,000 US personnel. The sheer number of American casualties ultimately forced the end of the war which came as a huge blow to US prestige at that time.

The US has also invaded Grenada in 1983, a country with a population of just 91,000, and its obsession with Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba kept the world on edge for several years before the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.

“I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being,” he said. “But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions,” Obama said.

But the question is whether America will follow through on Obama’s words in letter and spirit. Going by history, however, there is little room for optimism.

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