Obama's Iraq Speech

There are two ways to help people:

Doctors help cure the sick.

The military kills dangerous people.

Same results.

Thanks for the breakdown Chris- and voted up. Much better than listenning to the speach last night. I admit I was a bad American and skipped the teleprompter recital.

The only excuse I have is that I did not get home from work until 7pm- and by the time I finished working out it was already 8. The thought of eating dinner while listening was to much.

I wish Obama had said last night that he called President Bush and told him he was bringing his clusterf*ck in Iraq to and end AND that he had contacted The Hague and was extraditing him on war crime charges!

Whether the "surge" worked or not is irrellevant. We should never have been in Iraq in the first place.

There were no WMD and Bush knew that. There was no connection to Al Quaeda and Bush knew that. There was no threat of mushroom clouds over American cities - Bush knew that too!

This was was perpretrated by Neo-Cons who have always wanted to build a democracy in the meddle east...and along came an idiot like Bush that they could control.

Before Bush took ooffice all we heard was this talk of "nation building".

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, Perle, Wolfowitz, Powell, - they should all be in prison for the needless death over nearly 5000 US soldiers, thousands more maimed for life, families destroyed - not to mention the tens of thousands of Iraqis who we killed or caused to be killed.

This war accomplisehed one thing. It spread hatred towards America to every part of the globe and for that we can thank Bush.

He looked very Presidential sitting there with his hands nicely folded.I didn't want to screw the thing up by putting sound on.

the dream that a better life awaits anyone who is willing to work for it and reach for it.

Barry needs to come off the permanent vacation and take a real good look around. From construction workers to law students to scientists the jobs aren't out there!

I dare Obama to contact The Hague and say he is extraditing Bush on war crimes charges. They would laugh in his face and BO would be washed up in America, if he isn't already.

Ah yes the wingnuts hate everything Obama does. Wingnuts are really scrambling for how they can spin this as some liberal socialist america hating speech. Enjoy patting each other on the backs for your moronic rambling attempts to attack a good speech. That must be no different ahn watching Sean Hannazi tell you how you should think every night. Brainwashed morons. I'm sorry you're such partisans you can't even just let one speech go by without politicizing it and trying to use it as the basis for yet another unfounded right-wing attack. We get it, you'll never like anything Obama does. Now @!$%# off.

Pres Obama should have bash Bush. I understand why he didn't do it. But still, Iraq is in no better shape that when Saddam was running Iraq. Bush not only killed many innocent mothers, fathers and babies of Iraq people, he sent out mothers, fathers and kids to kill more and to be kill and all based on a freaking chest of lies and made up trump charges.

Bush also used a fake "God" to go Iraq. Bush still will not take any blame for one of the worst decisions in America's history

Great post. I thought Judith Miller in the Daily Caller had a good perspective on it too.

The speech had a dutiful quality to it. Now that we were leaving Iraq, we could turn to his essential war — the nearly ten-year battle in Afghanistan. Because of our “draw down in Iraq,” he said, America now had the resources to “go on offense” against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

But Al Qaeda has long left Afghanistan for safe havens in Pakistan and elsewhere. There was no mention of the Taliban, whose forces have reasserted themselves in areas where they had been defeated, and asserted themselves in areas where they had never been strong.

Mr. Obama’s “surge’ is under attack not only by many military analysts who doubt his effort to copy President Bush’s Iraqi strategy in Afghanistan and/or the 18 month deadline he has imposed for a draw down of American forces to begin, but also by many in his own party.

Indeed, the president had a wistful, almost beleaguered tone as he shifted from grim to grimmer. From a discussion of Iraq and Afghanistan he segued to the American economy, whose restoration he declared in an awkward transition, was America’s most crucial battle ground. Noting that we had spent a trillion dollars on the (implicitly) unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he deplored the fact that for a “decade” — not on his watch, to be sure — America had postponed the tough policy decisions needed to shore up the economy that financed its wars abroad.

He reiterated a list of vague but vital economic tasks ahead — restoring lost jobs, retraining American workers, educating our youth, and conserving energy, which no administration has managed to do, including his.

With his popularity ratings at dangerous, all-time lows less than two years into his term, who can blame Mr. Obama for appearing overwhelmed? The problems confronting America are daunting indeed. And he now owns them.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/09/01/an-overwhelmed-president-delivers-a-dutiful-speech/#ixzz0yIjQSBJk

Iraq was a waste of time, lives and material that did nothing to combat terrorism - the stated purpose of the war. The war in Afghanistan was the war with purpose, to get those who attacked us. Something we have failed to do, partially because of the missapplication of resources to Iraq.

The President showed exceptional retraint and character in not stating that the war, while valiantly fought, was a mistake of leadership. The touted surge should not have been necessary especially since Mr. Bush declared Mission Accomplished years before. Had he actually listened to his Military leaders and provided what they asked for, the surge would not have been needed. The surge was needed to clean up his mess. Giving Bush compliments on the surge is akin to complimenting the mopping skills of someone who kicked over a bucket full of crap.