A single moment that may have defined President Obama as a surprisingly tough commander in chief came in December 2009, when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize while leading two wars. In the 11 months before the speech and the 22 months since, a president heralded as a liberal and hailed as a pacifist has built his national security record by taking out terrorists, stepping up drone attacks, sending 30,000 troops into Afghanistan and clearing the air for a NATO war against Libya that led to Moammar Gadhafi's death Thursday.
"The perception out there is that he has cut defense," says Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. But even with the demise of F-22 fighter jets, Army combat vehicles and Navy destroyers, he says, "All that did was slow the rate of growth."