Six Years in, Obama Finally Focuses on ‘Countering Violent Extremism’

Last week, leaders of 60 nations, including some Muslim countries, participated in President Obama’s “Summit on Countering Violent Extremism” in Washington. Unfortunately, regardless of the content of Obama’s speech and the purpose of the conference, the administration’s lack of effective action over the last six years undercuts his credibility as a global leader on these issues.

First, the Obama administration has failed to produce an effective strategy to counter the next wave of terrorism, which we’re now facing. A Heritage Foundation task force of national security, Middle East and South Asia experts identified the weaknesses in the president’s “National Strategy for Counterterrorism,” published in 2011.

The report, titled “A Counterterrorism Strategy for the ‘Next Wave’” stated:

The administration now seeks to treat terrorism under a law enforcement paradigm that failed to protect Americans from terrorism when it was adopted by the Clinton administration before 9/11. In addition, the White House intends to follow a “small footprint” strategy for overseas operations, relying primarily on Special Forces operations, covert action and strikes with unmanned aerial vehicles.

The president’s strategy cedes the initiative to America’s enemies and provides them the opportunity to reconstitute both their moral and physical assets.

Islamist beliefs are rooted in a culture that the president’s strategy fails to appreciate. While Western conceptions of honor rest on occidental notions of virtuous acts and beliefs, the Islamist mindset equates honor with power.

By pursuing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama created a power vacuum and left the field open for radical Islamist terrorists. Additionally, when the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was attacked in 2012, the White House treated the attack as a police matter (after first blaming it on a YouTube video).

In recently released documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the Pentagon defined the event as an attack by terrorists trying to establish an Islamic state in Libya and started planning a military response.

Second, the president and the State Department this week called for economic development to provide jobs and opportunity for the vast youth population of the Arab world. Here, too, Obama could have done much more had he truly believed in the power of economic freedom. One modest program offers a model for growth that could be replicated, the Tunisian–American Enterprise Fund — a U.S. economic initiative supporting Tunisia’s transition.

Third, although the president spoke eloquently about winning the war of ideas against Islamism (which he refuses to even name), it is clear from the influx of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq that the enemy has the momentum in the propaganda war. In support of a hard power strategy, an aggressive long-term public diplomacy campaign is needed as well—on social media, in broadcasting and indeed in forceful condemnation of terrorism by national leaders—as we have seen from leaders of other nations that have suffered recent attacks.