Obama vows to expand airstrikes on Islamic State into Syria, but won't send combat troops
Two years after saying tide of war was receding, Barack Obama has been forced to recommit US forces to the Middle East for a years-long struggle
Unveiling a new defence policy in January 2012 that called for a leaner US military, President Barack Obama assured the nation that more than a decade of foreign conflict that cost thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars was drawing to a close.
"The tide of war is receding," Obama declared.
A little more than 2½ years later, Obama's national security strategy to limit foreign entanglements and focus on fixing domestic ills - an approach that mirrored the war-weary popular mood at the time - appears overly optimistic and out of sync with the world's harsh realities.
US military intervention in Iraq is expanding into Syria, Russia is ignoring Obama's demands to halt its armed incursion into Ukraine, and China's military-backed assertion of its rights to disputed maritime territories are testing US resolve to defend its Asian allies.
"Reality has intruded," said Vali Nasr, dean of Johns Hopkins University's school of advanced international studies in the United States and a former US State Department adviser. "The president's assumptions about foreign policy are now seriously challenged by facts on the ground."
As a result, despite successes like the killing of Osama bin Laden and other top terrorists and the neutralisation of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, Obama is likely to leave office in just over two years having failed in his goal of minimising the US role in crises overseas, especially those in the Middle East.