Sunday, September 12, 2010
When will it all end?
About a week and a half ago President Barack Obama announced the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, more commonly referred to as the Iraq War. However, he went on to make known that it was only the "combat" part of the mission was over. I'm sure that everyone is aware of this, and the fact that there are still around 50,000 soldiers still in Iraq. That's still a lot of troops, and those troops still face serious dangers. Unfortunately, no one can deny that there will still be casualties despite their "non-combative" status. With that being said, Why go through the theatrics of sitting in your chair in the oval office and proclaim to the nation that you've ended the war when you really haven't? I understand the scale back in number of troops is part of the process of ending the war, and had John McCain been elected not even that would have happened. I just don't understand why the big speech was necessary just because you changed the name of the strategy. Last week on a special episode of the Colbert Report dedicated to the end of the war and bringing troops home Vice President Joe Biden was a guest, and during his interview he admitted that the war was not won. Therefore, one can logically conclude that it's not over. It just seems to me that the big prime time address didn't necessarily need to be done in the way that it was. When all of the troops are brought home a big speech would make sense, or at least when almost all of the troops are home because lets face it there are going to be U.S. military bases in Iraq for a long time. That's just the way it is. Either way there will probably always be serious chaos in one way or another in Iraq, so let's hope that's not what they're waiting on. There was Bush's Mission Accomplished speech, and there was this speech by Obama along with more moments in between. I'm not saying there aren't moments that aren't important, but just a regular speech giving updates like this latest one would have been sufficient in my opinion. I'm just don't want to see the theatrics that pretend that the president was or is such a great accomplisher when not much of anything has changed.
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I absolutely agree with you on this issue. His oval office speech did feel like a speech just to boost his ratings and give democrats a fighting chance in the midterm elections. This speech did seem all too perfectly timed and Obama said all the right things. I think this was a media trick to try to earn citizens' trust again.
ReplyDeleteWell, he's a politician isn't he? And he is the chief politician in America, and this is what they do. Theatrics comes with the job, as seen from the BP Oil Spill controversy this summer. Whether the President likes it or not, he has to be theatrical. He said during the campaign in 2008 that he was going to be careful getting out of there, and while taking all troops out would be fantastic, it wouldn't be careful. Now, he did decrease the troop levels. It may not be all, but it isn't what we had, so in a way the promise is in the works. Two, nobody knows what winning is. I haven't the slightest idea now nor did I have the slightest when this war started what would winning look like. I wouldn't characterize this war as lost, but I don't even know what losing is. It was never defined, so no one can declare victory no matter what we do.
ReplyDeleteThis is just another example of him telling the general public what he thinks they want to hear and going ahead and doing his own thing, whether it is what he says he is doing or not, behind closed doors. Does this honestly surprise you? Its been going on for quite some time now. Also, people think taking troops out is a great idea but what about the fact that taking troops out leaves a smaller, more vulnerable force behind to deal with the same issues the larger forces were having trouble facing?
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