Another take on why he might be staying away:
Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/obama-plans-low-key-911-anniversary/article1282996/
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Obama plans low-key 9/11 anniversary
Jessica Leeder
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Friday, Sep. 11, 2009 08:38AM EDT
As the 11th hour strikes Friday morning, a hush will ripple across the United States to mark the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks – and the first with President Barack Obama at the helm.
Rather than join the throng of politicians attending the annual World Trade Center ceremony, Mr. Obama is slated to meet victims' families at a more intimate, lower-profile memorial at the Pentagon, a strategic move observers suggest is aimed at managing the tepid support for the war in Afghanistan.
“You're playing with fire if you're escalating a war people don't support. That's what Obama is doing,” said Ivan Eland, director of the Center on Peace and Liberty at the Independent Institute , a non-partisan public-policy think tank. “He's just trying to keep the lid on the crisis that Bush started,” Mr. Eland said, adding: “I don't think Obama is above taking advantage of a crisis, but I'm not sure mentioning 9/11 helps him out.”
By backing away from George W. Bush's tradition of using the anniversary of 9/11 to shore up support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Obama is giving himself the leeway to “withdraw from Afghanistan without accomplishing what Bush originally intended to” without suffering political repercussions, Mr. Eland said.
At the same time, the President is wary of being perceived as soft on terrorism and national security – a frequent criticism lobbed by right-wing commentators who have sought to portray his support for the new National Day of Service and Remembrance (an annual commemoration Mr. Obama signed into law in April designed to encourage and pay tribute to volunteerism and community service on the anniversary of 9/11) as a sign of his weakness on the issue.
In place of Mr. Obama, who spent last Sept. 11 at Ground Zero while campaigning for the presidency, Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife Jill will visit the site along with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, according to a statement from the White House Thursday.
“What you're seeing is an administration that is being incredibly cautious when it comes to Afghanistan,” said Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist who specializes in terrorism and international security.
Since winning his country's highest office, Prof. Pape said, Mr. Obama and his advisers have been forced to steep themselves in the complicated matrix of issues plaguing Afghanistan far more deeply than they had intended. It was the pullout from Iraq, not the buildup in Afghanistan, that dominated Mr. Obama's foreign-policy agenda during the election campaign. Since then, however, his administration has sought to deepen U.S. involvement in Afghanistan despite waning public support for the war.
The fact that the Obama administration appears to have chosen a low-key approach to commemorate 9/11 is a sign that it recognizes the public is suffering from “a tremendous amount of terrorism fatigue” that could ultimately prove polarizing, Prof. Pape said.
“The Obama administration really isn't pushing for a dramatic shift” in Afghanistan, he said. “They're sort of moving things along the edges, which is a very appropriate thing, given that this foreign-policy team and Obama himself are only now coming to grips with Afghanistan.”
The President's caution notwithstanding, public approval of his handling of Afghanistan and Iraq has fallen, according to an Associated Press poll released this week. Peter Feaver, a Duke University expert on war and public opinion who worked in the Bush White House, told The Associated Press that the public is confused over “where the President's gut is on this issue.”
What is clear is that Mr. Obama does not intend to define his presidency by the way he handles the leftovers from Mr. Bush's “war on terror.” It's an approach many find refreshing.
“We're just getting down to the point where politicians don't use 9/11 to bait people into supporting [wars],” Mr. Eland said. “I'm hoping we can now have the debate on causes for 9/11 and maybe change our policy so we can reduce our chances of having other terrorist groups or al-Qaeda attack us.”
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