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News | August 17, 2009

President Obama on Afghanistan: This is a war of necessity

Charisse Van Horn's photo
US Headlines Examiner
President Obama speaks on Afghanistan at the VFW Convention

President Barack Obama speaks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Phoenix, Monday, Aug. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Obama discussed the Afghan war at the 110th Veterans of Foreign Wars convention today. Though President Obama has focused primarily on health care reform, the issue is not without importance to veterans. Homelessness, PTSD, and alcohol and substance dependency, and mental and emotional well being are issues that must be addressed by the President and congress before any health care reform legislation becomes enacted. However, President Obama spoke about the importance of staying in Afghanistan.

President Obama stated, “This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans.” However, when it comes to the strategy used in Afghan, President Obama isn’t revealing many details. Calling for greater patience, President Obama warned that the days ahead will be difficult. The president also stated that Afghanistan wasn’t only a war worth fighting, but described the war as being fundamental to the defense of the American people.

President Obama also stated new tactics to be employed in the future, he stated, “And going forward, we will constantly adapt to new tactics to stay ahead of the enemy and give our troops the tools and equipment they need to succeed. And at every step of the way, we will assess our efforts to defeat al Qaeda and its extremist allies, and to help the Afghan and Pakistani people build the future that they seek.

Now, even as we lead and equip our troops for the missions of today, we have a third responsibility to fulfill. We must prepare our forces for the missions of tomorrow.
Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen adapt to new challenges every day. But as we know, much of our defense establishment has yet to fully adapt to the post-Cold War world, with doctrine and weapons better suited to fight the Soviets on the plains of Europe than insurgents in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan. Twenty years after the Cold War ended, this is simply not unacceptable. It's irresponsible. Our troops, and our taxpayers, deserve better.” To which, President Obama received an enthusiastic round of applause.

President Obama also gave praise to those who served sacrificially in the United States Armed Forces.  Addressing the audience and Veterans across the nation, President Obama stated, “Whether you wear the uniform today, or wore it decades ago, you remind us of a fundamental truth. It's not the powerful weapons that make our military the strongest in the world. It's not the sophisticated systems that make us the most advanced. The true strength of our military lies in the spirit and skill of our men and women in uniform.”

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US Headlines Examiner

Charisse Van Horn is a successful freelance writer who has written for numerous genres including investigative journalism and grant writing. She...

Comments

  • Jason 2 years ago
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    AND FINALLY: THE AFGHANISTAN ISSUE BOILS OVER (Christopher Story)
    "Our unanswered question last summer to the British Ministry of Defence ‘what are we doing in Afghanistan’, is now the primary UK press headline issue, with our 200th solider having died last week. As previously reported, we told the MOD that if they refrained from answering our question, we would be forced to conclude that our interim assessment that we are in Afghanistan to help the corrupt Americans to grab and retain permanent control over the heroin trade, is correct.

    • The Ministry of Defence didn’t correct us, because if they were to do so, they would be lying.

    On 13th August, The Times, London, carried a large colour photograph of the greatly loved veteran British Forces’ sweetheart and songstress, Vera Lynn, above the headline: ‘Dame Vera: “I don’t know what we are doing in Afghanistan”’."

    worldreports.org/news/229_devaluation_swindle_to_save_themselves__and_profit

  • gerard 2 years ago
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    Talibans have promised to stop war if Israel, inspired by Isabelle the Catholic mono-confessionnal state evangelising Americas, moves towards poly-confessionnal, with withdraw trup calendar.

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