This is going to be a very short and departing entry wherein I leave the question to you in hopes that you'll express your opinion in the comments section.
My opinion is no opinion. By chance and chance alone, I had turned on the television last night just as the President was about to go on. I watched and listened to the speech for a few minutes before I dozed off to sleep. I was pretty tired to begin with, so I don't recall much of what the President said, if anything substantive at all.
I will point you the way of The Maritime Sentry blog, however, where D. Roman has posted Mike Huckabee's press release on the President's speech. With that I leave you to offer an opinion.
Friday, September 14, 2007
What did you think of the President's speech on Iraq?
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3 comments:
Thank you very much for the mention.
Now onto your question. First I will say I was against the War in Iraq before we went in, because I did not feel we had the military forces to execute the war and its aftermath appropriately. Second, I believed we lacked the political resolve to actually win the war and occupation.
Once war was declared, though, I have fully supported it in every way I possibly could. The President has made grievous mistakes, but I feel he is mostly doing the right thing now. He still has not committed to increasing the size of the military as I and a lot of veterans believe he should.
In regards to the speech, I personally would have liked him to describe in more detail why its vital to American interests, most people do not understand why we cannot afford to lose there.
Also, I feel he left himself open to attack on the draw down of troops because as the media will no doubt point out endlessly, we have run out of troops and the Pentagon has informed the President that they would have to start a draw down of the troops no matter what his wishes were.
The thing that disappoints me is had we just started increasing the military significantly after 9-11 and had realistic goals for Iraq and our military this could have been an overwhelming success. It still can, but it is going to cost us more than it should have. The President also needs to take the ridiculous rules of engagement off our troops.
I may have come off as a Democrat. I assure you I worked tirelessly on the President's re-election campaign, but if we are going to be good conservatives we have to point out when our side has made mistakes too. I am also a veteran who has had the privilege of serving my country.
DR,
Thank you for your service.
While I didn't see the speech, I think we've got a job to finish there; supporting and training the Iraqis so they can maintain order in their own house. I know that many people see the goal as being some hard to define target, but pragmatically speaking, we're going to only be there until such time as the Iraqis can take care of themselves; or until such time as a Democrat forces a premature departure.
-MT
Michael,
I agree with you, we do have a job to finish there. But, I don't think we will be leaving in mine or your lifetime. I think we will have a presence similar to the presence we have in Germany or Korea. Obviously for political reasons, we will significantly reduce troop levels to probably 15 or 20 thousand. It is too strategic of a location to abandon. Just south of the Caspian Sea Region and right in the heart of the Middle East.
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