Calling all cars, Calling all cars, be on the lookout for a Neo-Conservative William Kristol; he has wandered off of the reservation again:
President Obama opposed the war in Iraq. He still thinks it was a mistake. It’s therefore unrealistic for supporters of the war to expect the president to give the speech John McCain would have given, or to expect President Obama to put the war in the context we would put it in. He simply doesn’t believe the war in Iraq was a necessary part of a broader effort to fight terror, to change the Middle East, etc. Given that (erroneous) view of his, I thought his speech was on the whole commendable, and even at times impressive.
[…..]
The close, was, I thought, well done. The president located those who fought in Iraq in the unbroken line of those who, from Lexington to Kandahar, “gave their lives for the values that have lived in the hearts of our people for over two centuries” and who “have fought to see that the lives of our children are better than our own.” There was a welcome implicit repudiation of Neville Chamberlain and appeasement, as President Obama praised our troops for having “fought in a faraway place for people they never knew.”
And at the end: “Our troops are the steel in our ship of state. And though our nation may be traveling through rough waters, they give us confidence that our course is true, and that beyond the pre-dawn darkness, better days lie ahead.” Not a bad tribute to the troops, and not a bad statement of the importance and indispensability of hard power.
And, on the whole, not a bad speech by the president.
First of all, I highly recommend that you go read the rest of that entry. It is a very fairly well written piece by someone of whom, I disagree with highly on foreign policy. The reason why I say this is because, quite frankly, last night, I watched Fox News channel, I listened to Steven Hayes and Monica Crowley tear President Obama’s speech to pieces. Plus, I sat and read the far-right wing blogs; and I actually sat and wondered, “Do these people actually get an order from somewhere to criticize everything that President Obama says and does?” Frankly, I find that to be absolutely ridiculous. But, I guess that is partisan politics anymore; criticize your opponent no matter what he does. That is why I am a bit different than the rest of these Bloggers who identify with the right. I only criticize Obama when he actually does something that I feel is wrong. Not because he is a Democrat and I am not and not because it happens to be the sporting thing to do among Bloggers and pundits on the right.
In closing: Kudos to Kristol for at least giving the President a little credit and not going along with the swine pack and doing what comes naturally to Conservatives of his stripe.