Obama resets ‘war on terror’

WASHINGTON: Twelve years after the “war on terror” began, President Barack Obama wants to pull the United States back from some of the most controversial aspects of its global fight against militants.
In a major policy speech on Thursday, Obama narrowed the scope of the targeted-killing drone campaign against Al-Qaeda and its allies and took steps toward closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. The US president is lifting his self-imposed ban on transferring Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen, a step toward his goal of closing the US military-run prison that he said “has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law.”
Nearly 100 of the 166 terrorist suspects held at the prison in Cuba are from Yemen and have had nowhere to go even if they had been cleared for transfer. Obama wouldn’t send them home, and no other country was welcoming them.
He acknowledged the past use of “torture” in US interrogations; and expressed remorse over civilian casualties from drone strikes.
After launching costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States is tiring of conflict. While combating terrorism is still a high priority for the White House, polls show by large margins that Americans’ main concerns are the economy and domestic concerns such as health care.
“We have now been at war for well over a decade,” Obama said near the start of his address. Toward the end, he added: “But this war, like all wars, must end.”
Pakistan said it appreciated Obama’s acknowledgement that force alone did not work, adding that the root causes of terrorism had to be addressed. It repeated its view that US drone strikes in its territory were illegal.
Islamabad said it welcomed some aspects of Obama’s address, particularly his acknowledgement that “force alone cannot make us safe,” but it remained firm on its long-held public stance on unmanned missile attacks in its tribal northwest.
“The Government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that the drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Human rights groups mostly welcomed Obama’s assertion that America could not remain on “a perpetual war-time footing,” but some activists said he was not going far enough.
An adviser to Yemen’s Prime Minister Rageh Badi praised Obama’s decision to lift the ban on the return of Yemeni detainees as a “welcome step” that would improve relations between the two countries.
Despite the new limits on drone attacks, pilotless aircraft are increasingly playing a role in the armory of the United States and other countries.
While Obama largely has a free hand as commander in chief to set US drone policy, Congress has used its power of the purse to block him from closing Guantanamo.
Obama has been frustrated by his inability to make good on his 2008 campaign pledge to shut the prison, which was opened by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, to hold men rounded up on suspicion of involvement with Al-Qaeda and the Taleban after the Sept. 11 attacks.
A hunger strike by 103 of the 166 detainees, 32 of whom have lost so much weight that they are being force-fed, has put pressure on Obama to take action.