In his remarks today before the West Point graduating class, President Obama made the following observation:
It is a particularly useful time for America to reflect on those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom – for you are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. When I first spoke at West Point in 2009, we still had more than 100,000 troops in Iraq. We were preparing to surge in Afghanistan. Our counter-terrorism efforts were focused on al Qaeda’s core leadership. And our nation was just beginning a long climb out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Four and a half years later, the landscape has changed. We have removed our troops from Iraq. We are winding down our war in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda’s leadership in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been decimated, and Osama bin Laden is no more. Through it all, we have refocused our investments in a key source of American strength: a growing economy that can provide opportunity here at home.
Charles Krauthammer says President Obama’s premature announcement that he will reduce troops in Afghanistan to 10,000 was an “act of personal narcissism.”
“When this was talked about a few months ago in the press, there was mention of the fact that if the full withdrawal happened in 2016, that would allow Obama to leave office having fulfilled the promise of liquidating the wars,” he said.
Krauthammer found it contemptible that Obama would orient military plans around the timing of his departure from office, merely to make himself look better.
Again, I wonder what the military community makes of the distinction between what the president has done and what Fox News and Charles Krauthammer say about what he has done.
If you are graduating from West Point today, are you concerned that you won’t be sent to Afghanistan due to the president’s “personal narcissism” and desire to “liquidate” Bush’s wars?
If I were graduating West Point I’d be asking why we haven’t left yet, and why we won’t be gone in 2015.
Talk about personal narcissism. How does Krauthammer know Obama is orienting his military plans around the timing of his departure from office? Because Charles Krauthammer says so.
I assume what’s really eating at him is that Obama had the nerve to address the graduating class at West Point in the first place. How dare the Commander in Chief go out there and tell the graduates what they can expect as they go into active duty!
One man’s narcissism is another man’s actual good policy decision.
So, starting 2 wars out of personal narcissism is perfectly acceptable; but ending them is not.
Mission Accomplished.
Heh, Krauthammer is such a mindless ass. On the way to work this morning I was listening our local 50,000 watt right wing radio station, and the DJ was doing his regular phone call with Ann Compton to discuss the goings on in politics. And when they talked about this very subject, Compton said that when the President made this same declaration while he with the troops this week in Afghanistan, he received, in her words, “long and sustained applause” at this announcement.
Krauthammer can just suck on that one for a while.
He can suck on more than that!
Suit Krauthammer up in camos, give him an M-16, drop him in Paktia province, and tell him to show us how it’s done. If he’s lonely, we can send Joe the Plumber and his Tea Party buddies to protect him as the Wayne LaPierre Brigade.
Apparently, the hardest thing to tell a West Point graduating class is that if the President and Congress succeed in foreign policy, there will be almost no ribbons and medals to hand out and to battle promotions either. That’s a tough prospect for those who seek schooling in the “warrior culture” as a way of self-validation of courage, honor, and all those other “warrior” values.
For people like Krauthammer, the United States without a war is lost; it has not way of creating “manhood”.
Do they have battle-wheelchairs?
Ol’ Krauthammer couldn’t fight in a war even if he really, really wanted to. Which of course he doesn’t.
What was he doing around the time ol’ Vietnam was going on? Oh yeah, college. Just like the rest of the chickenshithawks.
Anyone listening to him and taking his advice about war is a fucking idiot. If the US military wanted to be the best fighting force in the world, it would ask its recruits to read Krauthammer’s delusions, and rate them. Anyone who thought they weren’t absolute shit would then be dishonorably discharged for dumbfuckery.
I thought the (reduced) troop presence of 10,000 was to extend beyond 2016, and that the two major candidates for Afghan president support the continuation and want a status of forces agreement. Hell, they want even more US troops, for longer.
So what in hell is Krauthammer talking about?
If the President were to go on every major news channel and announce, “Afghanistan is still a mess. It will always be a mess. And I’m getting us the hell out because that’s what will look good in the history books,” I would still applaud. He’s saving those kids from having their lives wasted. I no longer care why.
You mean you value actual lives over rhetoric and platitudes?
That is very unSeriousTM of you. Hippie.