Tim Kaine, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is among the critics and on Wednesday argued that Obama still does not have a clear strategy for confronting the Islamic State in Syria.
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Kaine’s concerns may mirror broader trepidation about Obama’s management of foreign policy, which garnered approval from just 40 percent of Americans in a recent Associated Press-GfK poll.
And support for the President’s approach has been slowly sinking since the US formed a coalition in late 2014 to take on the head-chopping Islamic fanatics who have taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
A 54-percent majority of American voters approves of President Obama’s decision to send a little assortment of USA troops to Syria to assist in the fight against the Islamic extremist group ISIS. More than a year ago, he authorized a massive aerial bombardment of IS targets in both countries and recently, after the survey was completed, dispatched 50 Special Operations troops to Syria to advise Kurdish and Arab forces fighting the insurgents.
But Republicans – who were gung ho about invading Iraq – have harshly criticized Obama for failing to come up with a successful way of wipe out ISIS.
The survy also suggests there’s deep pessimism about USA prospects for success in Afghanistan. Other critics, mostly Democrats who support the president on many foreign and domestic issues, say Obama has turned on his promise to end the lengthy USA military involvement in the region.
A third oppose the new plan.
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But most of the people polled think the Afghan war, which former President George W. Bush launched after the September 11 terrorist attacks to root out Al Qaeda, has been a bust. Just 1 in 5 say it’s likely or very likely that Afghanistan can maintain a stable, democratic government once the USA leaves, and 71 percent predicted history will judge the Afghanistan war as more of a failure than a success. Seventy-five percent of people believe it is not likely.
