Conor Friedersdorf points out that, contrary to the reporting of the New York Times, President Obama does not straddle “the precarious line between hawk and dove” — he’s a hawk.

• Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan, adding tens of thousands of troops at a cost of many billions of dollars.
• He committed American forces to a war in Libya, though he had neither approval from Congress nor reason to think events there threatened national security.
• He ordered 250 drone strikes that killed at least 1,400 people in Pakistan.
• He ordered the raid into Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.
• He ordered the killings of multiple American citizens living abroad.
• He expanded the definition of the War on Terrorism and asserted his worldwide power to indefinitely detain anyone he deems a terrorist.
• He expanded drone attacks into Somalia.
• He ordered a raid on pirates in Somalia.
• He deployed military squads to fight the drug war throughout Latin America.
• He expanded the drone war in Yemen, going so far as to give the CIA permission to kill people even when it doesn’t know their identities so long as they’re suspected of ties to terrorism.
• He’s implied that he’d go to war with Iran rather than permitting them to get nuclear weapons.