Table Of ContentObama, the media, and Framing the
U.S. exit FrOm iraq and aFghaniStan
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Obama, the media, and Framing
the U.S. exit from iraq
and afghanistan
erika g. king
Grand Valley State University, USA
First published 2014 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2014 erika g. king
erika g. king has asserted her right under the Copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988, to
be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the british Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
king, erika g.
Obama, the media, and framing the U.S. exit from iraq and afghanistan / by erika g.
king.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSbn 978-1-4094-2964-7 (hardback) 1. iraq War, 2003-2011--mass media and the war.
2. iraq War, 2003-2011--Press coverage--United States. 3. afghan War, 2001---mass media
and the war. 4. afghan War, 2001---Press coverage--United States. 5. rhetoric--Political
aspects--United States. 6. Obama, barack--Oratory. i. title.
dS79.767.m37k57 2014
070.4'4995670443--dc23
2013023960
iSbn 9781409429647 (hbk)
iSbn 9781315598635 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 Surging to Victory in the War on Terror 21
2 Disrupting, Dismantling, and Defeating Al Qaeda 45
3 War’s Surge-then-Exit through a Skeptical Media Lens 77
4 Turning the Page on Operation Iraqi Freedom 115
5 War’s Drawdown through a Censorious Media Lens 145
6 Framing War’s Indecisive End 177
Bibliography 189
Index 219
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Acknowledgments
This project would not have been possible without the aid and support of a
number of people to whom I would formally like to express my gratitude. For
almost two decades, I have had the pleasure of working at a university that places
much value on faculty scholarship. I therefore offer thanks to the Department
of Political Science, the Office of the Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and
the Office of the Provost at Grand Valley State University for granting me
a sabbatical leave of absence with which to pursue my research. I also give
heartfelt thanks to Professor Robert Wells, with whom I collaborated on an
earlier analysis of President Bush, the media, and the Iraq War endgame—work
which laid the groundwork for the present study.
I am also much indebted to the talented and hardworking staff of Ashgate
Publishing—especially Senior Commissioning Editor for Politics Rob Sorsby,
Senior Editor Aimée Feenan, and their team—who have provided invaluable
editorial advice, guidance, and assistance. I appreciate in addition the incisive
comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers.
My greatest debt is to my husband, Robert, whose patience, kindness, and ever-
ready sense of humor have enabled me to keep everything in perspective. It is to
him that I am honored to dedicate this book.
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Introduction
Ten years and ten days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President
Barack Obama addressed world leaders at the opening session of the United Nations
General Assembly in New York City, just a few miles from where the Twin Towers
had been brought down on that fateful morning. His stated topic was the pursuit
of peace in “an imperfect world” scarred by strife and human suffering. “Peace
is hard,” he repeatedly emphasized, and progress toward it had all too frequently
been derailed. But urging his audience to do their utmost to attain that noble goal,
Obama (2011a) proudly declared that under his watch “the tide of war is receding”
and the two conflicts he had inherited were drawing to a close. By the end of
the year, he announced, the final American troops would cross the border out of
the sovereign nation of Iraq, and an increasingly capable Afghan government and
security forces would begin to assume responsibility for their own future.
The decade that had preceded his remarks had been a most difficult one, Obama
acknowledged, but 2011 had been a remarkable year of transformation as people
from South Sudan to the Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya had risen up to
claim those universal rights “embraced by this Assembly.” And Osama bin Laden
was also gone, and with him had been buried “the idea that change could only
come through violence.” Obama cautioned that in a world still facing dangerous
convulsions, there was much yet to accomplish in pursuit of individual liberty and
well-being. But even amid calls for change in places like Iran, Syria, and the West
Bank, we had reason to hope that for increasing numbers around the globe, basic
aspirations—“to live with dignity and freedom; to get an education and pursue
opportunity; to love our families and our God. To live in the kind of peace that
makes life worth living”—could now be met (Obama 2011a).
One month later, Obama reaffirmed the removal of all American forces from
Iraq by the end of 2011, casting the decision as the fulfillment of his solemn
campaign pledge to bring the war to a responsible conclusion “for the sake of our
national security and to strengthen American leadership around the world.” Again
Obama noted that the end of the Iraq conflict reflected a broader U.S. military
disengagement, and he once more proclaimed that “the tide of war is receding” as
Qaddafi’s death the previous day marked the imminent closure of NATO operations
in Libya and troop withdrawals from Afghanistan would soon mean a transition to
Afghan leadership. And finally, he was pleased to report, after a decade of war the
United States could shift focus and concentrate on its greatest remaining challenge:
domestic economic renewal. “The nation that we need to build—and the nation that
we will build—is our own,” he vowed; “an America that sees its economic strength
restored just as we’ve restored our leadership around the globe” (Obama 2011b).
