President Obama's Speech makes case for war

Tonight, before an audience of well-dressed and metallic blue suited West Point cadets, President Barack Obama gave the first speech calling for war in his young career. It was an Obama Afghanistan speech of 35 minutes time that turned this still skeptical observer from mild opponent to supporter.

Why?

Because President Obama reminded me of America's unique place in the World. It's something all too easy to forget in a time of massive job loss, outsourcing of industrial capacity, and decreased wealth. It's all to easy to believe that America's just another country rather than the leader of the free World. Obama gave me a wake up call.

Obama said we do not seek to occupy Afghanistan or to target a religion or an ethnicity. Obama explained that he wants to rid Afghanistan of the terrorist cancer in its culture (my words) and cause the country to become a partner with the industrialized World.

Obama also gave a picture of a region that's producing terrorist enemies who try to enter America at a regular rate. That was new information for me and caused me to place Obama's decision in another perspective: Obama wants to go to the source of these terrorist attempts and stop it.

President Obama did what few other Presidents have done: place the act of war in an overarching framework that fits within America's ideals. Unlike President George W. Bush, who said he wasn't an advocate of nation building, then sent America on a mission to do just that in Iraq, President Obama insisted that a long occupation was undesirable, then explained why. Obama assembled the intellectual and emotional framework for a troop surge and did so in fine fashion. The lingering question is will it work?

The one part of the grand scheme is  Afghanistan.  Will they Afghan people be able to take over and run their affairs in 18 months?  Will we stay if that's not the case, or leave according to timetable?  Can Afghanistan be trusted to do its part in this effort, or is the culture so intermixed with Al Queda that such expectations are folly? 

Those are the questions I have, but I'm ready to go forward because this President reminded me of America's place in the World.