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Abbott in Washington: pep talk time
Posted By Peter Jennings on June 4, 2014 @ 06:00
Barack Obama’s West Point speech shows a man tired of the presidency, weighed down by the war in Afghanistan and unsure of America’s role in the world. Obama is having his LBJ moment. Johnson fought an unpopular war, losing domestic support and ultimately the support of his party. The plain-talking Texan lamented:
I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved—the Great Society—in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs.... But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere on the entire globe.
The United States will use military force, unilaterally if necessary, when our core interests demand it—when our people are threatened, when our livelihoods are at stake, when the security of our allies is in danger. … On the other hand, when issues of global concern do not pose a direct threat to the United States, when such issues are at stake—when crises arise that stir our conscience or push the world in a more dangerous direction but do not directly threaten us—then the threshold for military action must be higher. In such circumstances, we should not go it alone. Instead, we must mobilize allies and partners to take collective action.
What’s remarkable right now is that, perhaps for the first time, the world appears to have more confidence in America than America does in itself. … These are new and testing circumstances, perhaps more testing than any since the end of the Cold War, but that just makes despondency, let alone defeatism, more corrosive than usual.
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[1] Image: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Obama-West-Point-2.jpg
[2] West Point speech: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/28/remarks-president-west-point-academy-commencement-ceremony
[3] lamented: http://quotes.dictionary.com/i_knew_from_the_start_that_i_was
[4] he addressed the conservative Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/2012/11/the-australiaus-alliance-and-leadership-in-the-asiapacific
[5] he wasn’t signed up to closer cooperation and more concerned about Beijing’s view: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/bob-carr-catty-man/
[6] White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/photogallery/graduation-united-states-military-academy-west-point-2014