I listened not to a rah rah speech.. but one of grim grim determination

[Peacetrain]

to bring the troops home and secure us.. 20 months away from Iraq active military coming home, and the date of leaving given to Afghanistan.

We are coming out of there, and the howlers on the fringe right are not happy about it..but we are coming out of there.

We are not coming out on the with helicopters picking up people off the top of buildings like we did in Vietnam under Nixon.

Obama basically said, we have done what we can do, we will give it one last clean up and we are coming home.

Everyone needs to get board on that and start tightening their belts in Afghanistan, Pakistan AND Iraq.

We are coming home

[xultar]

1. Well said!!!

[DontTreadOnMe]

2. One last clean up...

so can you please send your children to the front of the "cleanup" line.

And send us their credit cards too.

[NYC Liberal]

3. Thank you for saying it.

The right-wing smears will start flying shortly but I'm glad you said this.

Obama is finishing this.

[Peacetrain]

9. Yes he is

Though it is eminently obvious some do not want him to end it.

[Thrill]

4. Turn on MSM. Thats the new meme to hit him with

"He's hamstrung the military" "He's not giving them enough time" "How is he going to have a timetable"

MSM is going to have this guy in the 30s approval when they're finished with him.

[Peacetrain]

5. Screw them

[Cha]

20. Fuck them.

[IndianaGreen]

6. Nice 'White Man's Burden' speech by Obama

On the other hand, the people of Afghanistan want all the foreign troops out of their country!

[Peacetrain]

8. Okay you do it better... give us the benefit of your knowledge how to get us out quicker

[Odin2005]

13. "White Man's Burden" Obama-bash FAIL!

[IndianaGreen]

17. Perhaps you are not familiar with Kipling,,,,

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Rudyard Kipling
The White Man's Burden, 1899

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Baltoman991]

15. White mans burden?

Certainly you can do better then that. On second thought, probably not. Pathetic.

[Fire1]

16. That's not what we're being told. Quite the contrary. They

have to be convinced that we will not be there indefinitely. Historically, the Afghan gov't has been unable to control the Taliban.

[inna]

7. anyone have a transcript?

[IndianaGreen]

18. Daily Kos

[Cha]

21. Right here on DU..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x30134

[inna]

23. thank you!

i appreciate the link.

:hi:

[Cha]

24. You're welcome, inna~

[Hekate]

10. Once again, he speaks to his audience like thinking adults capable of holding...

... a reasoned discourse and more than one thought in their heads at a time. Of course, not *everyone* is actually capable of such a thing, but it's refreshing to have him behave as though enough of us are to make a difference.

I know I've said this before, but I voted for him based on his judgment and character as I perceived them to be, rather than a rigid personal agenda. So far I have seldom been disappointed. Barack Obama is solid. He has given this situation (which we all know is a bucket of crap that got handed to him by Bush) his most careful consideration. Judgment ... Character.

Bush the Lesser and his posturing, his dress-up flight suit, his continual photo-ops with *real* soldiers, his coke-jaw, swagger, and bullying bravado, his telling us over and over to Be Very Afraid -- that's who got our country into this mess. Sometimes it seems like half the people here don't remember that far back.

Barack Obama is laying out a course of action, but in his speech I also heard him calling us to our better selves, to be the people who show the world By Example what we are all about as a nation.

For instance, from my earliest childhood I was taught that no matter what a tyrant might do with POWs and other prisoners, We Don't Torture, That Is Not Who We Are. Bush-Cheney-Rove took that away from us, and we let them. It sickened me to watch torture become an official policy. We became no better than the tyrants we used to oppose.

I think Barack Obama was not only laying out his instructions for soldierly behavior, in a sense I think he was giving us back to ourselves. That part is important and transcends this particular plan for Afghanistan.

One more thing. No place in this speech did I hear him tell us to be afraid, be very afraid.

Hekate

[Peacetrain]

12. No he did not say be afraid.. and he was just so resolute..

that we have done just about all we can do.

He is keeping his word, to do the deep push to look for Al Qaeda.. and then we are coming home

[BlancheSplanchnik]

33. wish I could articulate what you just did

still, I feel very heavy-hearted.... but then, I guess that's appropriate. Doing the wise thing doesn't always feel sparkly-happy.

[MollieBradford]

11. grim determination

yes you can tell by the frowny face he had on. He does that one much better than he does his humble face.

[TwilightGardener]

14. Oh, is he arrogant? Is that what you're trying to say?

[bevoette]

19. thanks for this post. this place is a schizoid trip. (nm)

[OneGrassRoot]

31. +1 n/t

[SpartanDem]

25. Thanks for this post

[impik]

26. For those who are not brainwashed

on both sides, not only on the right - this was a terrific speech. A true leader, with vision and balls. Screw the haters here and on any other "Liberal" site, especially today. They don't deserve this president.

[Cha]

27. It was a speech of determination..

that's why I don't understand at all those who are refering to it being like bush?

That's just lazy journalism.

[avaistheone1]

28. We will finish the job.

We will kill those poor people. We have also have soldiers standing at the ready to convert them to Christianity too.
Destroying their country and displacing people will be good for them. Watching their newborns come into this world with two heads and no limbs will be a sign to them they have been liberated. We have sparkling bombs on stand by to greet many newly weds and their families too. Just look at the job we did in Iraq. No harm, no foul, we have got ourselves an exit plan.

After all this the Afghans will throw rose petals at our feet and ask us why we didn't get there sooner.







:sarcasm:

[backscatter712]

29. Obama did use the correct tone.

There was none of the jingoistic crap that Bush always delivered with his smirk. Agree or disagree, Obama delivered the speech with a sober tone appropriate to addressing the nation about a destructive war.

[lamp_shade]

30. Another excellent Peacetrain post. I hear ya.

[JTFrog]

32. K&R

[JVS]

34. I listened to one of grim rah-rahism

[NJmaverick]

35. That's the sort of speech you expect from a great President

[GeorgeGist]

36. Thanks for the laugh ...