Experience powerful investigative storytelling that answers only to you. From criminal justice to politics to global issues, the reporting of PBS’ flagship public affairs series, FRONTLINE, takes you inside the controversial, complex stories shaping our times.
When President Barack Obama took office in 2008, he had campaigned on ending the war in Iraq and keeping the U.S. out of new military conflicts. But Obama now finds himself exactly where he didn’t want to be: trying to defeat a brutal terrorist group in Iraq and Syria without dragging America into a prolonged regional conflict. How did we get here?
In "Obama At War," premiering Tuesday, May 26, veteran FRONTLINE journalist Martin Smith examines the Obama administration's complicated struggle to deal with the deadly civil war in Syria, now in its fifth year — and explores how the accompanying rise of ISIS has raised the stakes.
“There’s a sad irony in the fact that now, the U.S. and brutal Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad share a common goal: defeating ISIS,” says Smith, who has covered the Middle East for FRONTLINE for more than a decade, most recently in "The Rise Of ISIS."
Drawing on interviews with key military and diplomatic leaders, "Obama At War" is an intense look at the heated debates within the administration about when and how to get involved in Syria.
“We were driven in part by our impulse learned in the Balkans, about the necessity of US intervention … to help deal with brutal dictators,” former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Derek Chollet tells FRONTLINE. “But also very mindful of the lesson we took from Iraq, where the over extension of American power in Iraq brought tremendous hardship onto the people.”
"Obama At War" traces Obama’s Syria policy from the Arab Spring in 2011 onward, revealing an administration struggling to identify reliable partners on the ground, mindful of the American public’s war-weariness, and divided over whether to provide military aid to “moderate” rebels. The documentary also explores how the spiraling humanitarian catastrophe under Assad allowed ISIS to flourish.
“Is it really a surprise that Syrian opposition and the people that support them would seek the help of anybody to get rid of the regime that is inflicting this pain?” former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford tells FRONTLINE. “I think it’s human nature to seek the help of those who will defend you.”
With more than half the people in Syria displaced from their homes, ISIS continuing to seize and hold territory in Iraq and Syria, and the administration mulling its next move, "Obama At War" is an inside look at the administration’s biggest foreign policy challenge.
"Obama At War" is a FRONTLINE production with Rain Media. The writer, producer and correspondent is Martin Smith. The co-producer is Linda Hirsch. The deputy executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.
Past episodes of FRONTLINE are available for online viewing. FRONTLINE is on Facebook, Instagram and you can follow @frontlinepbs on Twitter.
"Obama at War" - Preview"
"On Tuesday
