Conflict in the Arab World [4:05]
During the Obama campaign in 2008, Obama as a candidate condemned both of the wars and actually called for their end and to bring the troops home. He did understand, however, that once a conflict is underway and the United States is a player, that the United States needs to see its way out of those situations, much like the United States was going to do once the wars on terror had died down. The United States needed to act as a way to build nations and build democracy in these areas around the world and not just get up and leave.
The United States had learned its lessons from the behaviors after the Vietnam War to know that this was not a way to behave. However, Obama did want to bring the troops home and bring them home quickly. One of the promises that Barrack Obama made during his campaign was the closure of the prisoner camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which was holding a number of enemy combatants that were picked up by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq during the War on Terror. Unfortunately, President Obama did not meet his deadline for the closure at Guantanamo Bay and the prisoners continue to be held.
In May 2011, President Obama announced that American military forces had captured and killed Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al Qaeda, the network that was responsible for the September 11 attacks as well as other attacks on others around the world.
The Iraq War ended officially for the United States in December 2011, with our troops coming home and a few staying behind to provide support and training for the Iraqis to be able to take care of their country and to transition into their own independent nation. Barack Obama also began to pull troops from Afghanistan in 2011.
In the years of 2011 to 2013, social media played a major role in what is now known as the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring were homegrown protests that actually emerged out of social media, things like Facebook and Twitter, where people in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, and Libya were calling for reform and calling for change and rose up together to overthrow their dictators, their governments in those countries, and to seek democracy in their countries. Barack Obama didn't necessarily denounce or support any of these movements but did support these countries in their quest for building democracy.
https://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Topics/Display/1709661?cid=140&sid=1898306
MLA Citation
"Conflict in the Arab World." American History, ABC-CLIO, 2025, americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Topics/Display/1709661?cid=140&sid=1898306. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.