We watched the President's announcement of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan last night - and if you haven't seen it yet, we suggest you put aside about fifteen minutes and watch it. At the very least, read the transcript.
Frankly, there wasn't anything that surprised us about the speech.
It's not that we're jaded. We know the stereotype of people who work in media and communications - and while that cliché may have some basis in reality, it didn't color our opinion of the President's address - or the reactions of our colleagues in the media that we observed last night.
First, to the speech.
Several media organizations had already leaked earlier this week that President Obama would be calling for 10,000 troops to come home by the end of this year. Others leaked that Obama would call at least 30,000 troops back in the next fifteen months. Neither piece of news shocked us when the President confirmed them both.
We weren't even surprised that the President made his announcement this month. Eighteen months ago, at West Point, the President told the country then that he was sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in order to actually try and complete the mission initially assigned to those troops a decade ago. The initial mission was to subdue the Taliban, help bring back a secular government, and kill Osama Bin Laden. Eighteen months later, all three goals have been accomplished - and true to his word, President Obama is now beginning to bring the troops home.
Certainly, there were other factors in the President's decision, the cost of the wars being one of the largest. Overall though, this President has - more often than not - completed the goals he's set for himself, and worked to fulfill his promises. One look at Politifact's "Obmaeter" confirms that he's only broken his promises on 42 of 508 promises made before he took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Sadly, we remain unsurprised at how the partisans on both ends of the simplified political spectrum attacked the President after his speech.
On the left, the anti-war liberals immediately jumped on the President as not moving fast enough, and harped on the fact there will still be more troops in Afghanistan than there were when he was inaugurated. Of course, they'll conveniently ignore the fact that his predecessor never even sent the recommended number of troops to either Afghanistan or Iraq in the first place.
On the right, the members of the 101st Kowardly Keyboard Kommandos' Chickenhawk Division immediately jumped to the idea that ANY significant troop reduction is a choice between a safe America and an unsafe America. As we've noted before, we'll never know if they'd feel the same way if they'd been the ones serving four or five tours of duty in war zones over the last decade, instead of living off the largess of their parents and others.
We're not even surprised at the general lack of reaction from Afghans and Pakistanis. Regardless of when we leave, the Afghans will likely revert back to their age-old habits of tribal squabbles and corruption. And Pakistanis still aren't sure killing Bin Laden was a good idea.
Everyone knows where they stand on this issue - and it's no different than it was before the President's address last night. The only thing that might surprise us about his speech is if we found someone who actually changed their opinion of the war after the President's address.
We won't hold our breath we'll find anyone like that.
