…
“We got bin Laden, and our troops will be out early in my second term if you reelect me, because we got bin Laden, and I never will forget the sacrifice of the troops who helped me get bin Laden, USA USA USA!”
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Pretty much.
And just like any Democrat…budgeted for 10 minutes and too over 15. Over budget again.
Not to mention Libya was probably the real reason for the talk. So often it is the LAST thing said that is the real point.
Oh crud. My first post on the new board and a typo in my post. “took over 15”
/*sigh
Honestly, I don’t think the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan has anything to do with killing OBL, it is just a convenient excuse for an ultimately political move. Since 2008 I’ve predicted that he would have us out just in the nick of time for the 2012 elections. And it sickens me to know that this was a political not tactical decision.
I’m thankful it was only 15 minutes – listening to Obama is more painful than a root canal.
Fifteen minutes is 20 minutes too long.
How about the new “Weiner” eruption [no pun intended], this time involving Congressman Alcee Hastings, who was impeached in 1992 while a federal court judge on charges of either perjury or bribery, maybe both. Congress has opened an investigation on Hastings for allegations of sexual harassment by a woman named Winsome Packer, a staffer for the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is under the jurisdiction of a committee that Hastings chaired.
Thank God you watched Obama, Prof. Jacobson, so I didn’t have to.
Lol! I just luvz your summaries, Professor!
I quit listening to his speeches long ago. By the fifth strawman argument (usually about a minute and a half in) I’m usually ready to break the tv. Listening to a guy argue something is one thing, listening to him argue against positions no one is taking is just a waste of time.
@Cowboy Curtis, My dad shot the TV when he heard a politician he didn’t like. True story!
Professor, you forgot to add what Obama didn’t say but really meant.
Dear Taliban,
Here is the timeline for our withdrawal. Now, if you will just quit killing American soldiers long enough for me to pull them out of Afghanistan, you can have it back unimpeded. The increased number of dead American soldiers in that God forsaken country is making me look bad with the voters that voted for me and I am, after all, running for re-election.
Sincerely,
Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
If I may be so bold as to point out a very glaring error in the first sentence of your summary, Professor. I believe it should be “I got bin Laden…”, not “We got bin Laden…”
Someone noted that the drawdown will be just in time to mollify anti-war voters for the ’12 election.
I also liked the Instapundit comment about “nation-building at home”, something to the effect of “oh great, rampant corruption with no rule of law, just like in Afghanistan”
Seemed like he was trying to set out a criteria for military action similar to Palin’s 5 points. I understood her five points but couldn’t make any sense from Obama’s fifteen minutes.
Sean Delonas summed up 0’s latest strategy best in his cartoon: http://www.nypost.com/opinion/…..232011.jpg
Sorry ’bout that broken link. Let’s try this again: http://www.nypost.com/opinion/cartoons/delonas/2011/06/06232011.jpg
🙂
[…] – Professor Jacobson sums up President Obama’s Afghanistan speech quite nicely: “We got bin Laden, and our troops will be out early in my second term if you reelect me, because we got bin Laden, and I never will forget the sacrifice of the troops who helped me get bin Laden, USA USA USA!” […]
[…] audience? Legal Insurrection kind of summarized the speech and echoes some of what I was thinking here. I don’t think it is going to escape anybody’s attention that he made Afghanistan his […]
“Having ordered a surge of 30,000 troops back in 2009, Obama is now pulling the plug on the effort just when it was showing success.” Max Boot
“It’s the firmness of spinelessness, the toughness of weakness, the verhe Oxyy definition of leading from behind. This brilliant man is running an oxymoronic presidency.”
John Podhoretz
“Fighting a war by timetable is a recipe for failure. Our enemies are quite capable of watching the clock and observing what regions are becoming easier targets as Americans leave. With fewer troops available, the remaining ones are at greater risk. Worse, these brave men and women are being risked for a mission that becomes ever more unachievable as the size of the force dwindles. Leadership does not mean splitting the difference. It means stepping up and doing whatever is necessary to reach your stated goals, or admitting that the goals are no longer worth the cost in blood and treasure and then withdrawing. Halfway measures almost guarantee a double loss: mission failure and wasted lives.”
Jim Lacey is professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps War College.
“But if, as a result of these withdrawals, the Taliban and al-Qaeda and their allies rise again, Obama’s reluctance to forge a strategy to defeat global jihadism — his insistence, against all the evidence, that “the tide of war is receding” in Afghanistan and on other fronts — will be very obvious to voters.”
Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
“So why September 2012? Because, one has to conclude, Election Day is November 6, 2012. The September deadline will allow candidate Obama to say that he has completely withdrawn the surge forces, and that we’re on our way out of Afghanistan and coming home. The timetable President Obama has set isn’t based on military considerations, diplomatic strategies, or financial calculations. It’s based on the election calendar of candidate Obama.”
William Kristol
“Afghanistan: France follows US in troop withdrawal. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced the phased withdrawal of its 4,000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.”
BBC
As always, it’s about him. He thinks this will help get him elected next time around.
@Taxpayer1234, that’s pretty funny.