What’s Worth Watching: The Fog of War

Frontline, “Obama’s War” (Tuesday, May 25, 10/9c)

In “Obama’s War,” a tough and timely edition of PBS’s flagship news program Frontline, even the president’s harshest critics (including political rival Sen. John McCain) concede the Commander in Chief had no easy options for dealing with the ongoing civil war in Syria. This humanitarian crisis has helped spawn a serious military and political foreign-policy challenge with the troubling rise of the terrorist organization ISIS.

After the fall of Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria in recent days to Islamic State militants, scrutiny has intensified on President Obama’s reticence to commit large-scale American military forces to the region. Frontline correspondent Martin Smith interviews military and diplomatic sources, putting Obama’s policies and decisions in context, while acknowledging the situation is only getting more complicated and dire.