精品纽约时报文章.docx

1、精品纽约时报文章【关键字】精品News Analysis1.Successes Overseas Are Unlikely to Help Obama at HomeWASHINGTON President Obamas announcement that the last American soldiers will leave Iraq by the end of this year capped a momentous week in which he could also take credit for helping dispatch one of the worlds great

2、villains, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Enlarge This ImageDoug Mills/The New York TimesAfter a decade of war, were turning the page and moving forward, the president told supporters in an e-mail on Saturday. Conventional wisdom holds that none of this will matter to Mr. Obamas frayed political fortunes,

3、which will be determined by the economy rather than the notches he is piling up on his statesmans belt. Yet Mr. Obamas withdrawal from Iraq a campaign pledge kept and the successful NATO air campaign in Libya with no American casualties, and at a tiny fraction of the cost of Iraq allowed him to thre

4、ad a political needle: reaffirming his credentials as a wartime leader while reassuring his Democratic base that he is making good on the promises that got him elected. This one-two punch may also strengthen the presidents hand against his eventual Republican opponent, according to Mr. Obamas suppor

5、ters, by depriving Republicans of a cudgel typically used on Democratic presidents, that they are weak on national security. The swift and fierce criticism of his Iraq decision by the Republican candidates shows how reluctant they are to cede this advantage to him. “There is an aggregate effect to a

6、ll the presidents foreign policy successes,” said Bill Burton, a former White House aide who is a senior strategist at Priorities USA Action, a political action committee backing the Obama campaign. “The notion of who is a stronger leader will be deeply influenced by the promises the president kept.

7、” Mr. Burton said he could foresee television advertisements playing up Mr. Obamas foreign successes, including the deaths of both Osama bin Laden and Colonel Qaddafi, though he did not say whether his group had made such plans. On Saturday, Mr. Burton circulated a memo to producers of the Sunday ta

8、lk shows drawing a contrast between the cost of the Iraq war and the lower-cost Libya operation. Still, there is little doubt the election will be dominated by the economy and the weak job market, where the president is dealing with a steady drip of bad news and scant hope of improvement before Elec

9、tion Day. A discussion of foreign policy has been largely absent from the debates among the Republican presidential contenders, a striking fact given that the nation is enmeshed in three major military conflicts and that Republicans have historically claimed an edge in national security. “Foreign af

10、fairs is important, but when placed against the scale of the problem with jobs and the economy, its dwarfed,” said David Winston, a Republican strategist. “Its the equivalent of a house on fire: hes fixing the window while the rest of the house is burning down.” Karl Rove, a former strategist to Pre

11、sident Bush, said, “To the degree Obama tries to suggest he should be re-elected because of foreign policy strength, he looks like hes dodging the main issue.” Mr. Obamas poll numbers also show he is getting little credit for his successes. His approval rating shot up 11 points, to 57 percent, in a

12、New York Times/CBS News survey after he ordered the commando raid in Pakistan that killed Bin Laden in May, but fell back below 50 percent a month later as fears about the economy punctured the euphoria. Last weeks successes could fade too if sectarian violence in Iraq flares up after the American t

13、roops leave, if Libya becomes another Somalia or if a terrorist group manages to stage an attack on American soil. “If things go off track in the next year or two, its not going to matter what the military successes were,” said David Rothkopf, a foreign policy expert who has written a history of the

14、 National Security Council. Even as former Bush administration officials praised Mr. Obama for the victory in Libya, the Republican presidential candidates were trying to draw attention to the failed talks between the United States and Iraq over legal immunity for a small force of trainers that the

15、Pentagon had wanted to remain. Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Jon M. Huntsman Jr. and Herman Cain all criticized the presidents decision, with Mr. Romney issuing the most strident condemnationThe Next War2.Panettas Pentagon, Without the Blank CheckWASHINGTON Tan and ruddy-faced, Defense Secretary Le

16、on E. Panetta took his seat in a hearing room one morning this month ready for battle. The enemy, he warned lawmakers ominously, was “a blind, mindless” one that could “badly damage our capabilities” and “truly devastate our national defense.” Jonathan Ernst/ReutersDefense Secretary Leon E. Panetta

17、warns against a hollowing out of the military. Pete Souza/The White House, via Associated PressPresident Obama speaking to Mr. Panetta, left of center, and members of the national security team at a meeting about the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room in May. Mr. Panetta meant no

18、t Al Qaeda, the Taliban or Iraqi insurgents, but a creation of Congress poised to inflict what he deemed unacceptable budget cuts on a Pentagon that, he admitted, had “a blank check” in the decade after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “After every major conflict World War I, World War II, Korea, Viet

19、nam, the fall of the Soviet Union what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep, across-the-board cuts that impacted on equipment, impacted on training, impacted on capability,” he said. “Whatever we do in confronting the challenges we face now on the fiscal side

20、, we must not make that mistake.” As President Obamas C.I.A. director, Mr. Panetta oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last spring. Now as the presidents new defense secretary, he is charged with closing the books on multiple fronts just last week, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed in Liby

21、a and the last American troops were ordered home from Iraq by the end of the year. But the biggest challenges ahead may be retrofitting the military for a new era of austerity and guarding Mr. Obamas national security flank heading into a turbulent election year. “It is one of these watershed points

22、,” said former Senator David Boren, co-chairman of the Presidents Intelligence Advisory Board. “Its just like the end of the cold war when youre about to shift gears and were going to have to reprioritize what we have to do.” The daunting task has fallen on Mr. Panetta, a 73-year-old former civil ri

23、ghts chief, congressman, budget director and White House chief of staff whose career dates to the days of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Returning to Washington from his California walnut farm in 2009, Mr. Panetta knew little of fighting wars. What he did know was Washington institutions, a trait that

24、 made him a throwback to the so-called wise men commanding respect across party lines. Who else these days is confirmed 100 to 0 by the Senate? But you dont get to 100 to 0 without compromise or evolution. The cold war dove who opposed Ronald Reagans contra war in Nicaragua in the 1980s and George B

25、ushs Persian Gulf war of 1991 has become a war on terror hawk, authorizing more drone strikes in Pakistan than George W. Bush. The critic who denounced torture during Mr. Bushs tenure took office and argued against investigating whether it happened. The co-author of the Iraq Study Group report calli

26、ng for withdrawing troops recently pressed to keep more troops there. The careful positioning has made Mr. Panetta one subject on which Mr. Obama and many Republicans agree. “Im a Leon Panetta fan,” said former Representative Pete Hoekstra, who is no Obama fan. “Hes fairly hawkish and aggressive on

27、national security issues,” agreed Representative Mike Rogers, the House intelligence chairman. Representative Peter King, the homeland security chairman, said Mr. Panetta could have served “the toughest Republican president, not just a Democratic president.” How long that lasts, of course, remains u

28、ncertain. He is treading into dangerous territory as he searches for $450 billion in defense cuts over 10 years. If a new Congressional debt committee cannot forge a deficit-reduction agreement by Thanksgiving, Mr. Panetta faces what he calls a “doomsday mechanism” mandating an additional $500 billi

29、on in cuts. The issues on the table are enormous the financial health of a debt-ridden country, military readiness to confront a still-dangerous world and many thousands of jobs and contractor businesses in Congressional districts around the country. The political crosscurrents are treacherous for a

30、 party so sensitive to its public standing on security that Mr. Panetta is the first Democrat to serve as defense secretary since 1997. 3.Jobs Plan Stalled, Obama to Try New Economic DriveWASHINGTON With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin

31、 a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: “We cant wait” for lawmakers to act. Enlarge This ImageAccording to an administration official, Mr. Obama will kick off his new offensive in Las Vegas, g

32、round zero of the housing bust, by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners, those with little or no equity in their homes, can refinance and avert foreclosure. And Wednesday in Denver, the official said, Mr. Obama will announce policy changes to ease college graduates repayment of federal loans, seeking to alleviate the financial concerns of students considering college at a time when states are raising tuition. The presidents announcements will bookend a three-day Western trip during which he also will h