Série (2) - Etats-Unis:les années Obama + interview Dr Mvelle

Obama Targeted Eliminating Terrorism

He registered key successes although challenges still persist.

The outgoing President of the United States of America Barack Obama goes into the annals of history as an American leader who devoted much energy and resources to tactfully fight terrorism both at home and abroad.
As the upsurge in the insurgencies of Islamic State  (ISIL) terrorist group continued unabated in the Middle East and North African, President Obama is  quoted as declaring, “"My top priority is to defeat ISIL and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world. And we see high-profile attacks in Europe, but they're also killing Muslims throughout the Middle East -- people who are innocent, people who are guilty only of worshipping Islam in a different way than this organization.”

Successes Recorded
Under the reign of Barack Obama, the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group in what was co-named Operation Neptune Spear on May 2, 2011 killed the most wanted terrorist, Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. He was founder and head of the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda said to be responsible for the unforgettable and historic terrorist attacks on the United States of America’s soil of October 11, 2001.
In the face of the multiplication of terrorist attacks across the world, President Obama on September 10, 2014 announced the formation of a broad international coalition to defeat the Islamic State militants. Reports say that since the formation of the coalition, the United States has led 66 international partners in a global coalition to counter ISIL with a focus on liberating ISIL-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria. The mission is reportedly aimed at striking ISIL at its core, degrading its networks, and constraining its prospects for expansion.
Some keen political observers have described President Obama as a superior terrorist hunter. Reports say he also neutralised a profound existential threat to U.S. allies in the Middle East, and denied Islamic State militants access to vast storehouses of deadly chemical weapons.

Failures in Terrorism Fight
President  Barack Obama  wanted at all costs to be a peacetime president. However, when he will be handing over power to the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald Trump on January 20, 2017,  terrorist Islamic State groups in Syria, Iraq would not have been defeated. The Taliban terrorist group still continues with  unperturbed attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In a survey contained in a National Polling,  55.5 per cent of Americans disapproved  of how Obama has handled terrorism, and the numbers moved even further against the president after the Paris attacks in November 2015.  According to the poll, 68 percent of Americans believe the nation’s military response to Islamic State insurgents hasn’t been aggressive enough.
During President Obama’s tenure of office, there was an exponential rise of terror attacks within the United States. The Bernardino and Orlando terror attacks in the last six months resulted in the killing of more than 60 people and more than 70 wounded. These were just  a tip of the iceberg as there has been myriads of smaller attacks. The New York Post reported that in 2016 the US suffered eight significant attacks by Islamist terrorists on US soil or diplomatic property.

« L’élimination de Ben Laden, un succès symbolique »

Dr Guy Mvelle, enseignant à l’Institut des Relations Internationales du Cameroun.

Que peut-on retenir de la présidence Obama sur la lutte contre le terrorisme ?
Le plus grand succès symbolique de Monsieur Obama reste évidemment le fait qu’il ait pu attraper en mai 2011 au Pakistan, Oussama Ben Laden, le cerveau des attentats du 11 septembre 2001, lesquels ont montré au monde entier l’impuissance de la puissance ; et de l’avoir jeté en mer d’Arabie pour éviter toute récupération de son corps pour des fins de propagande.  Mais je parle là de succès symbolique dans la mesure où ce résultat est l’aboutissement des efforts de lutte contre le terrorisme ayant pris un tournant décisif au lendemain des attentats du 11 septembre, sous Bush Jr, lequel a fait de la lutte contre le terrorisme la clé de voute de la politique étrangère des Etats-Unis. L’on peut même remonter à Bill Clinton car c’est lui qui va promulguer une succession de lois antiterroristes, au nombre desquelles figurent l’Antiterrorism and Effective Dealth Penalty de 1996, et l’Illegal Immigration and Migrant’sResponsabilityAct. Clintonva même remettre au goût du jour la notion de War on Terror, déjà utilisée par Ronald Reagan dans un contexte de lutte contre l’Axe du mal qui était pour eux le bloc soviétique. Obama inaugure sa présidence d’abord par un changement de sémantique à travers l’abandon des termes Global War on Terror, ce qui est important dans la lutte contre le terrorisme où les mots sont fondamentaux dans la radicalisation ou la déradicalisation. Ensuite, le 21 janvier 2009, il annonce la fermeture du camp de Guantanamo, en mars de la même année, il dévoile sa stratégie concernant l’Afghanistan et le Pakistan pour une nouvelle offensive contre les talibans ; le 13 février 2010, il lance l’opération Mushtarak  en Afghanistan de près de 15 000 soldats toujours contre les talibans, car l’axe afghano-pakistanais est la vraie source du terrorisme selon Obama. D’autres actions directes et indirectes de coopération ont été constamment menées par les Etats Unis ces dernières années, notamment en Afrique, y compris dans le Bassin du Lac Tchad contre Boko Haram, avec des partenariats part...