No, Barack Obama has not declared an end to the War on Terror – Spectator Blogs

I see that Con Coughlin is at it again. Apparently, you see, Barack Obama has “taken leave of reality”. How so? By declaring that al-Qaeda is but “a shadow of its former self”. That seems a reasonable statement to me. Moreover, the sensible response to that declaration is surely I should bloody well hope so. Otherwise what have we – that is, chiefly, the US Armed Forces – been doing these past dozen years?

According to Con, however, the President is, at best, hopelessly naive and, more probably, abdicating from his responsibilities. You see:

Is he forgetting that it is only five months since Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, died following an attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi by al-Qaeda militants? Is he unaware of al-Qaeda’s takeover of large swathes of North Africa? Hasn’t anyone told him that al-Qaeda is now playing an active role in trying to overthrow the Assad regime in Damascus, as well as infiltrating other Islamist movements in places such as Egypt and Tunisia?

We can all understand Mr Obama’s desire to make reviving the American economy his first priority.