President Obama's Speech Tonight - Your Opinion

[MineralMan]

7 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	A perfect job. He got it exactly right.
	4 (57%)
	I hated it. More time in Afghanistan? For what?
	2 (29%)
	I'm going to have to think about it some more and get more facts.
	0 (0%)
	If Afghanistan is not to become chaotic, we need to stay.
	0 (0%)
	This was one of Obama's worst speeches ever.
	0 (0%)
	I'm glad our military will be scaled down.
	0 (0%)
	I don't believe the troop reductions are fast enough.
	1 (14%)
	I have no opinion about it.
	0 (0%)
	What speech?
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[MineralMan]

1. Thanks for your votes. Keep 'em coming.

[TheWraith]

2. I think he did a good job. It was a bit vague, but it had to be.

He's threading the needle of extracting us from Afghanistan ASAP while trying not to leave a power vacuum. Hence we clean up as much of the mess as we can, get the troops out within a couple years, and offer some secondhand support to the Afghan government while they're trying to stabilize the rest.

[Daniel537]

3. We should have been out years ago.

Every day that passes is another waste.

[MineralMan]

4. I think we should never have been there

in the first place. Our meddling in the Middle East never works out. That said, Bush got us in there, and getting out isn't easy without creating even more turmoil.

[Daniel537]

7. We got out of Iraq pretty easily in the end

when everybody thought it was going to collapse. And there's probably more Al-Qaeda there today than in Afghanistan, since by the CIA's own estimate there's no more than 100 of those guys left in Afghanistan.

[MineralMan]

8. It took too long, though, and the end result is not yet visible.

At least that's my thinking.

[Daniel537]

11. We were there 8 years as opposed to 11 in Afghanistan.

Lots more lives and money lost there as well. I just don't buy the doom and gloom coming from the neocons about Al-Qaeda taking over once again. Remember how strong they were in Iraq during the early years? By Panetta's own estimate Al-Qaeda has been reduced to third-party terrorist status is Afghanistan. I really don't understand why we need to keep pushing this thing so long. Almost seems to me that we're trying to redeem ourselves for Vietnam at this point.

[MineralMan]

12. And it was a much worse decision to go to Iraq.

We had no business there at all. I'm glad we're essentially out of that country. We will be out of Afghanistan, too, in time. Now, if we can just resolve not to do that stuff again...

[MrSlayer]

5. The speech was very good as usual.

That's where he shines. He can read the phone book and make it compelling. However, I'm not thrilled that we're going to be wasting billions more on an unwinnable situation. At least they're pulling the majority of the troops and leaving the strike forces to do police actions, the way Afghanistan should have been pursued from the beginning.

[Pisces]

6. Pitch perfect and reminded people that the Iraq war was not about Osama!! I want the troops home

sooner, but I appreciate the way the President is handling it.

[JNelson6563]

10. +1

[baldguy]

9. Good speech as always; bad policy.

We can't go around the world "nation building" when we have a wealthy & influential faction at home bent on dismantling our own nation.

[Texasgal]

13. Not fast enough.

This whole thing has been a disaster from day one.

Get the troops out and stop bleeding money we don't have.