Surely the Washington Post can do better than this as a way of taking one more smack at George Bush while puffing up Obama as “Commander Of The Armed Forces.” Unnamed sources praise the incoming President for his openness, while smacking President Bush … and the one who is named, Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, is a long time Bush Critic. Gateway has a great analysis but read on too for a little different take.
But my favorite paragraph is this one:
One of the biggest long-term military issues on Obama’s plate will be the defense budget, currently topping 4.3 percent of gross domestic product once war expenditures are included.
Obama has said he will increase the size of the Army and the Marine Corps, finding savings in the Iraq drawdown and in new scrutiny of spending, including on contractors, weapons programs and missile defense.
To put that in perspective … social security, medicaid and medicare account for more than 8% of the Federal budget and defense spending, even with a war is below the historical average and just in case you were wondering where Obama wants to cut, for your viewing pleasure.
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James –
Had the pleasure of listening today. Driving from W. CT to examine a bank in Rhode Island. I am a bank auditor looking at commercial loans. The small banks did not create the problems.
Obama held yet another conference to tell me what a press release would also tell me. But take the opening statement sentence by sentence it sounded to me like a run-on catalog of platitudes. One platitude runs into the next and piling on and pretty much saying not much at all.
I guess it is a lot like his stump speech he is still giving.
"And so, in this uncertain world, the time has come for a new beginning – a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century, and to seize the opportunities embedded in those challenges. We will strengthen our capacity to defeat our enemies and support our friends. We will renew old alliances and forge new and enduring partnerships. We will show the world once more that America is relentless in defense of our people, steady in advancing our interests, and committed to the ideals that shine as a beacon to the world: democracy and justice; opportunity and unyielding hope – because American values are America’s greatest export to the world.
To succeed, we must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: our military and diplomacy; our intelligence and law enforcement; our economy and the power of our moral example. The team that we have assembled here today is uniquely suited to do just that."
Geez. Ugh.