For what it’s worth, I thought that the president gave a measured speech in Copenhagen Oslo, flipping conventional criticism of his speaking style on its head by expressing personal humility and national pride. It is hard to avoid saying “I” when reluctantly receiving a prestigious prize, but especially after a history of world-wide apology tours for the actions of the nation he leads, it was gratifying to hear him say this:
I begin with this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter what the cause. And at times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world’s sole military superpower.
But the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions — not just treaties and declarations — that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest — because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others’ children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.
This is no longer candidate Obama, running against Bush/Cheney, these are the words of a man who seems to have finally understood the burdens of his office while overseas including representing all of us, regardless of whether we agree with his health care reform plan.
Which is why this message on the cover of Time magazine is so wrong at so many different levels -
Not just wrong, but wrong-headed. It was his war when he took the oath back in January of this year. His war as a serving US senator. His war as a US citizen.
It’s our war too, yours and mine. Our sons and daughters are fighting it, as are the sons and daughters of our closest allies. Their losses are our own. The forces arrayed against them are wicked and vile and not all of these are Afghan jihadis and al Qaeda terrorists.
Yes, some of those hostile forces lived in cave warrens in the Hindu Kush, burned schools that dared to teach girls, left “night letters” on the doors of those who dared to dream of a world without tyranny, and left IEDs in the path of those who have fought to realize that dream. But others lived comfortable suburban lives far from the battlefields and abused the sacrifice and bravery of our troops sent forth under the terms of our binding Constitution to do the nation’s bidding and they did so for crass partisan gain. They abused the common bonds of our social compact, the ties of our shared nationhood that still represent the last, best hope for humanity.
Not all or even most of those who opposed our nation’s wars did so out of such venal and base motives, but some did.
It is one thing for our degraded national media to pitch the president’s decision in partisan political terms, they are barely evolved from last century’s yellow journalists and perhaps it will help them sell a few more magazines. But there some whose political opinions I generally agree with that have watched the president commit additional forces with scarcely disguised glee, eager geese hoping to cook sauce for the gander should our efforts in Afghanistan stumble or fail. These are not my countrymen, nor are they my allies. Like those who cheered our failures on the other side they are mere parasites, dependents upon those so vastly more brave and with so much more character that they must seem as if from a different species.
It was his war all along, and ours too.
Always has been.
I read this excerpt to The Oracle and asked him which of our Presidents said it. He guessed twice – Reagan and Bush Senior. When I told him it was Obama – he was speechless. As am I.
Never did I think we’d hear words like that from the mouth of the current POTUS. Let’s hope he continues to accept and shoulder the burdens of his office and this great country in the same vein.
Maybe it was a one-time thing going hand-in-hand with the Nobel and his clear discomfort with the receipt of it. Maybe his speechwriters thought it would reflect more humility on the man to make it clear that he is a president running a war.
Maybe.
I hope that the terrible weight of of the responsibilities of the office have finally dawned upon him. The jury is still out as to whether his actions and his policies will match his rhetoric.
The truth is that our military has gone to war, America has gone to the mall. Those families that have members in harm’s way live each day knowing how critical those policy decisions are. We count days and live with the constant realization that elections do, indeed, have consequences, some unintended, and some unforeseen.
The challenges that face our nation are gigantic. The major problem is that there is a significant difference between the way those on the right, and those on the left, see the response to the global threat of Wabhabbist fundamentalists. Despite all their good intentions, the left does not understand that wishing is not a policy. And good intentions do you little good in a knife fight.
Marine6
Amen to that. The degree to which the population and the military are separated from each other is very bad nowadays. Clausewitz always hammered on the need for the government, military and people to be on the same page, and to try to defeat the enemy by breaking his trinity of these things. Sadly, we’re just doing it to ourselves.
Correction: Oslo, not Copenhagen (that’s next week). Cheers.
Must have changed speech writers! I just hope he understands and believes what he said.
Yes, that’s THE key $64,000 (showing my game-show age) question, isn’t it?
PS: The “$64 Dollar” question was my Father’s WWII generation’s question….now it’s Howie Mandel and who wants the millions…. Onward and upward!
Leopards and Spots!
Judge the imPOTUS by what he does, not what he says.
He is an empty suit mouthing whatever platitudes the slobbering media will appreciate and his statements are hollow.
Actions! Not empty rhetoric.
Talk is cheap, but hope springs eternal. Let POTUS’ actions going forward do the real talking.
Mongo, not only is talk cheap, it has been too damned effective for BHO to date with his core supporters. I truly believe that BHO will do literally almost anything to achieve his domestic agenda -converting the America of our Founding Fathers to Amerika the Socialist state.
It is not only BHO that needs to be watched; what about his staff? Any substantive changes there? Not that I am aware of; still the usual suspects.
Seems to me your message, Lex, is lost on most of our nation and politicians. Marine6 has it right when he says most Americans don’t see it as anything to do with them. It’s just another reality show you watch on TV or read about on CNN.com.
During WW2 we had victory gardens and rationing and stars in windows when we had family overseas. Now it’s a spectator sport or a video game.
World At War: Modern Warfare. You don’t like the game? Don’t buy it. You don’t like the war? Flame it on Twitter or Facebook, or just ignore the issue. Not my problem, mon.
Besides, Tiger’s
hoeswoes are much more important.I like the thought about victory gardens, and may start one of my own nearby.
Thanks for the reminder.
Best…
Yup, he can talk the talk(speech writers & teleprompter also helps)… but so far has used the “help me, I’ve fallen and can’t get up” while walking the walk. IMO, had he been really walking the walk of POTUS, he wouldn’t have taken such a long time making the decision on McChrystal’s assessment and request. Careful determination be damned. That should have been concluded prior to his giving the job of Commander of Afghanistan Forces to Gen. Stanley McChrystal or very shortly thereafter.
Well said, Lex. Thank you for a great post.
Like those above I am concerned by the extent to which his recent responsible and needed words will be put into action, but I’m hoping the words ARE a reflection of his thoughts. Hope isn’t a strategy, but it’s all we’ve got at the moment…
Obama-mao merely pulled a page out of Bill Clinton’s playbook…He like Clinton is a chameleon. He will say what he needs to say when he needs to say it! He has lost the middle in the US. His polls have dropped like a safe and he is reacting to the polls and steering more to the center politically. His speech in Oslo was directed to the American people, not the Nobel Committee. Think about it…This guy sat in Rev “Goddamn Amerika” Wright’s Church for twenty years…He pals with terrorists Bill Ayers. He excoriated GW for years over the evil War on Terror. He joked that war on terror is grammitically incorrect while our military are fighting a real shooting war the likes of which we have’nt seen since WWII. Hue City, while a horrific battle in Vietnam is merely day another day at the Office for those who fought in Fallujah! Sorry, not buying the BS from this guy. He’s merely trying to save his own skin. He should have declined the award or accepted it in the name of those stalworts who have died defending freedom…My two cents.
Nozzle, I left a reply to you at “Apres East Anglia”
My computer blue-screened in middle of posting here and it ended up there! LOL! Go see.
I saw your reply…Appreciate the h/t. See you around campus…
LOL! Charitable bunch here.
I’m saving portions in my mental vault in case I need ammo for some future verbal smack-down.
Thought I should add: Not for posters here. Just thinking out loud. That sent the wrong message…hee hee…sorry.
While I will wait to see if actions conform to rhetoric, I would note who he addressed those words to: not his sagging domestic base, who would not believe them anyhow, nor to his domestic opposition, who would not believe him, but to an international audience that assumes he will keep America complacent while a thousand international lilliputians (little whores) attempt to tie us down with million little treaties and agreements. An interesting dynamic, indeed.
What the Time title does show is that even the leftists now realize that Homey has the conn and that blaming Bush is no longer gonna cut it. And I for one am glad to see that they have finally put him on the hook for something that he has owned since he took the oath of office.
My Summer of 2008 was spent in Iraq, COB Speicher outside Tikrit. This Summer, 2009,June -July -August was in Afghanistan and going back next month. These bad guys are not the Japanese Imperial Army or Hitler’s (spelling problem here)Weremact..if we have the cajones and political will they are toast. But we have to want to do the job, as our troops want, and have the will, which our Govt. may lack.
EdZ KG6UTS
kg6uts@amsat.org
Godspeed and good hunting Ed KG6UTS. Y’all (you AND your buddies) be sure to check your own six often–don’t plan on too much help from the political home front beyond what they are forced into–but then looks like you already knew that…sad to say…I’d say “keep your dobber up,” but it looks like you’re doing a pretty good job on your own…Check back on return or sooner and let us know the straight skinny…
[...] these lines from JB is one I saw but didn’t really absorb from Neptunus Lex last week on Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in Oslo: “…I begin with this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about [...]