That rationalization for the false "peacenik" image of Obama is starting to wear thin after two years of esclation. Let me get this right: you are saying that he has create a massive embasssy in an age deficits because it was "politically impossible not to do so, right?
The more obvious explanation (based on Obama's actual deeds) makes more sense. Despite the fact that most Americans thought the war was a mistake when Obama took office, he decided to send in even more troops that Bush had tried to send it. If Obama was really a peacenik, he he could have easily appealed to public opinion in an age of deficits and said that we could no longer afford it and it was "Bush's fault." He showed his true feelings when he reappointed Bush's pro-war secretary of war (err...defense) and kept bailing that hopelessly corrupt and unpopular Karzai.
Obama is also not "totally antiwar" when it comes to Yemen where he has been intervening in a major way. I could also point out that (again in a age of massive deficits) Obama has actuallY INCREASED the size of active duty forces. Obama is in the PROGRESSIVE Wilson and FDR tradition when it comes to foreign policy.
Yikes! Here I thought that $21 million that we spent to refurbish the U.S. Mission in Havana in the 90s was outrageous!