Obama and ending the war
I just wrote this letter to the fine folks at Politifact.com:
I couldn't find this promise in the database:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr9ywEFRQkQ
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank."
Promise #125 is "my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war". That promise is listed as kept, however recent events draw the good faith aspect of that promise into question. Even so, that is a substantially different promise from "the first thing I will do ... get our troops home."
I can attest, personally, that President Obama is *not* "getting our troops home" as I have personally taken more and more troops *to* various war zones around the world (primarily the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters) since he took office. And, to complete the train of thought, he has, indeed, done many other things. So he did not "first... get our troops home".
IMO:
1: The promise indicated above is not listed and is broken, and,
2: Though President Obama may have had a meeting on his first day in office, he has not seen to it that the military's mission is truly to end the war. I would call that a "compromise" not a "promise kept" for #125. Or maybe "in bad faith" is a better description.
V-
I couldn't find this promise in the database:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr9ywEFRQkQ
"I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank."
Promise #125 is "my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war". That promise is listed as kept, however recent events draw the good faith aspect of that promise into question. Even so, that is a substantially different promise from "the first thing I will do ... get our troops home."
I can attest, personally, that President Obama is *not* "getting our troops home" as I have personally taken more and more troops *to* various war zones around the world (primarily the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters) since he took office. And, to complete the train of thought, he has, indeed, done many other things. So he did not "first... get our troops home".
IMO:
1: The promise indicated above is not listed and is broken, and,
2: Though President Obama may have had a meeting on his first day in office, he has not seen to it that the military's mission is truly to end the war. I would call that a "compromise" not a "promise kept" for #125. Or maybe "in bad faith" is a better description.
V-