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In reply to the discussion: Fuck. [View all]SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)If you had Googled "transcript fort bragg, n.c., wednesday, dec. 14, 2011," your first search result would have been the White House site with the actual transcript: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/14/remarks-president-and-first-lady-end-war-iraq
It was Obama's famous "Welcome Home" speech. He wanted to make sure our Iraq war troops got the welcome home that the Vietnam vets never got. THAT was the point of the speech. That is how the mainstream news sites reported it. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-to-troops-welcome-home/
The fact that you strain to find another message in it says a lot about you. You truncated a quote, suggesting he was referring to the Iraq War, when he was referring to the WITHDRAWAL from Iraq. Here's the full paragraph you purport to quote:
You can search that whole speech and nowhere will he say it was a good idea to start that war. As he noted:
Its harder to end a war than begin one. Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq - all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering - all of it has led to this moment of success. Now, Iraq is not a perfect place. It has many challenges ahead. But were leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. Were building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home.
The point of the speech was to celebrate the end of the war and honor the veterans, and in particular these veterans, who served in the years-long drawn-down mission. They did not volunteer to serve in an unjust war. They volunteered to serve their country. Iraq war veterans did not fail their country, it was their country that failed them. Obama did not want to repeat the same mistake as we made with the Vietnam vets. Veterans who served in an unjust war still served their country, they still sacrificed, they still died. And their sacrifices should be acknowledged. That is what this speech was about.
You ask "What difference does it make where the transcript came from?" The difference is that right wing sites are destructive. First, they often contain mal-ware and viruses. It is not a coincidence that my computer froze after I clicked on your link. I had never heard of CNSnews.com. If I had known what it was, I would not have clicked on it. Clicking on right wing sites supports that site and right wing causes. Every click translates into advertiser dollars. If you are progressive, which you claimed you were as part of joining DU, then you should not be supporting right wing causes. Finally, right wing sites are invariably full of lies, as all right wing arguments are. Right wing philosophy goes against the interests of the 99%. The only way to get the 99% to vote for the right wing is to lie them. That is the right wing's only way to get us to voluntarily give them power. Please do not support their lies. And do not repeat their lies here. I come here to get away from that crap.