Obama Delivers Final State of the Union Address. Thank God! -The iPINIONS Journal

I have listened to enough State of the Union Addresses to know that they invariably amount to a triumph of style over substance. And nothing demonstrates this quite like the most memorable thing about President Obama’s address last year being not something he said, but a congressman yelling, ‘You lie.’

(“2011 State of the Union Address,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 26, 2011)

On Tuesday, President Obama delivered his seventh and final State of the Union address. He ascended the presidency on a platform of “Hope and Change.” But, where this annual address is concerned, he only delivered more of the same, namely soaring rhetoric, signifying nothing — except fodder for political talking heads on cable TV.

No doubt Obama delivered great addresses. Alas, this has proved no more significant than the bad ones his predecessor, George W. Bush, delivered. This is why I marked last year’s address with a commentary titled, “State of the Union: A Political Spectacle … Take 2,” January 29, 2015.

Which brings me to the only part of Obama’s final address that is even worthy of comment. It pertains to the folly of U.S. entanglements across the Middle East.

Here is how he presented this hard-learned lesson:

We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq, and we should have learned it by now…

The Middle East is going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia…

[W]e have to set priorities.

(WhiteHouse.gov/SOTU, January 12, 2016)

Except that even this bit of soaring rhetoric signified nothing. After all, Obama claimed that America was fighting the “good war” in Afghanistan. Yet 2,326 American soldiers died there … in vain. More to the point, 70 percent of them fell not on Bush’s watch, but on Obama’s … when it was already patently clear that this war had descended into an unwinnable quagmire.

Frankly, I have written many commentaries decrying Obama’s Bush-lite war on terrorism. And each of them laments a recipe for quagmire, which resulted only in spilling more American blood and treasure.

Here are excerpts from just a few.

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From “Obama Escalates Afghan War; the ‘Die’ Is Cast on His Presidency,” December 2, 2009:

I do not see how Obama can possibly justify the loss of life and waste of money that will occur over this period [to the end of 2014], just for him to end up doing what President Nixon did in Vietnam (i.e., declaring victory and going home).

From “Perhaps Only Authoritarian Regimes Can Govern Arab Countries,” June 11, 2014:

The primary cause of this mess is the sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims that has been simmering in Arab countries since time immemorial [aka millennia]…

Regarding wasted blood and treasure: according to the Washington Post’s ongoing feature ‘Faces of the Fallen,’ as of April 2014, the United States had already lost 6,805 soldiers trying to build ‘full democracies’ in Iraq and Afghanistan; and a 2013 study from Harvard University estimates that, by the time the United States retreats from Afghanistan next year, it will have spent upwards of $6 trillion trying to do so.

Not to mention the more than one hundred thousand Iraqi and Afghan civilians who lost their lives.

From “Obama’s Mission Creep in Iraq Channeling JFK’s Mission Creep in Vietnam,” November 12, 2014:

I knew when Obama announced his 300-troop redeployment in June that he’d be redeploying more … and more – as I cynically argued in “Why Have 300 Troops When 3000 Will Do?” June 20, 2014. [He has now redeployed 3,500.]

Hence my analogy to Vietnam; after all, Obama is conducting the Vietnamization of this conflict by the book (i.e., emulating JFK’s original march of folly in textbook fashion). And all indications are that, even though not nearly as formidable a fighting force as the Viet Cong, ISIS terrorists will prove every bit as vexing and unconquerable (their greatest weapon being their fanatical ideology of anti-Western hatred).

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I have been an ardent Obama supporter since he stepped onto the world stage as a wannabe president in 2006. My commentary, “It’s TIME: Run Obama, Run!” October 24, 2006, confirms this.

I’ve proudly hailed him as a transformative president, citing, among other accomplishments, his championing healthcare reform, normalizing relations with Cuba, and striking a nuclear deal with Iran. My commentary, “Success of Obama’s Policies Confounding, Vexing, Defying Republican Critics,” December 29, 2014, confirms this.

But I take profound exception to Obama making such a show of denouncing the deployment of U.S. troops to countries that fall into crisis. Not least because, from day one, the bane of my support and the Achilles heel of his presidency has been his decision to do just that, time and again.

Incidentally, much is being made about how old Obama looks these days. I submit, however, that having the blood of so many American soldiers on one’s hands, and having so little to show for it, is enough to turn any president’s black hair grey. What’s more, in “Obama Saluting War Dead Will Be Defining Image of His Presidency,” October 30, 2009, I warned it would be thus.

In any event, I vented my dismay with this plank of his foreign policy in many commentaries, including “Support the Draft to Prevent Stupid Wars,” March 14, 2007, “Obama Escalates Afghanistan War: the ‘Die’ Is Cast on His Presidency,” December 2, 2009, “Sunni, Shias, and Kurds Fighting for Control of Iraq. Stay Out, America!” June 19, 2014, “Demystifying ISIS: Case against Obama’s Bush-lite War on Terrorism,” September 10, 2014, and “Obama Amassing Coalition to Do in Syria What Bush Did in Afghanistan/Iraq,” September 30, 2015.

But, hey, it’s never too late even for Obama to learn. Or should I say, HOPE springs eternal?

NOTE: ‘Tis wind and nothing more,’ but my support for Obama’s presidency compelled me to continue commenting on this annual address. Nevermore!

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