OBAMA'S AFGHANISTAN SPEECH AT WEST POINT: POMPOUS, POLITICAL, AND PATHETIC

President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday night at West Point was loose with the facts, to put it generously. It's disgraceful that the "Commander-in-Chief" would use this important address before our Cadets of West Point to perform his usual deception, omission, blame, lack of responsibilty, and self-promotion. If Obama can't be can't be straight with the military, who can he be honest with.

Of course, he took the opportunity to politicize, reminding us, ad nauseum, about his inheritance of "the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression," which is statistically untrue, not to mention completely off topic. Now that he's been president for almost a year, championing economic policies that increased the annual budget deficit by 300% and multiplied the number of unemployed by 41%, (7.2% to 10.2%), his statement may be true.

I believe I'm correct in saying that this is the first time that a president, the Commander-in-Chief, stated the objective of the war in terms of a withdrawal timetable, rather than the goal "victory" first, followed by an appropriate withdrawal strategy, second.

Below are some of the president's statements from his Afghanistan speech to West Point, followed by my analysis.

OBAMA: "As president, I've signed a letter of condolence to the family of each American who give their lives in these wars."

WOW! That's amazing! Soldiers die defending our country and he expects them to be overjoyed because they receive a form letter signed by him. Why even mention that? What does that accomplish? Does he think that this somehow shows compassion on his part? Is this some kind of accomplishment? What a self-aggrandizing horse's ass.

OBAMA: "In the last several years, we've lost that balance. We've failed to appreciate the connection between our national security and the economy." "Our new approach in Afghanistan is likely to cost us $30 billion dollars for the military this year."

Laughable that this fraud of a "deficit hawk" is now concerned about spending. Let's put his $30 billion in perspective. It's less than a "rounding error" when compared to his $1.4 trillion, 2009 budget deficit, with trillion dollar annual deficits projected through 2019. It works out to a minuscule 2.14% of his deficit!

This reveals the president's upside-down priorities. At a blink of an eye in a hurried fashion, in lightening speed, he'll spend $787 billion to stimulate the Democrat Party, creating non-existent jobs in invented state districts, but winces at spending a small fraction of that amount on our military. Note to self: Don't allow limp-wristed Democrats to run wars.

OBAMA: "Because this is an international effort, I have asked that our commitment be joined by contributions from our allies. Some have already provided additional troops, and we are confident that there will be further contributions in the days and weeks ahead."

According to the Associated Press: "When Obama says he is confident that allied countries will provide more troops in the weeks ahead he is setting aside years of mostly empty-handed American efforts to get others, including allies in NATO, to deepen their commitment to combat in Afghanistan."

While this typically would be an announcement that was done from the Oval Office, of course President Obama sought to turn it into a photo-op moment deciding instead to give the address in front of a large audience at West Point. (I guess when planning the address, he remembered when he told the troops, "You guys make for a great photo-op.") However, this plan seems to have backfired given the tepid response from the audience.

SUBDUED APPLAUSE SPEAKS VOLUMES

Normally, when a president speaks, at every pause, the audience loudly applauds. During a speech addressing this war in Afghanistan, in front of future military officers, one would expect there to have been at least one moment of intense cheers and applause. (Of course, given the content of the speech, that was not going to happen.)

The lack of applause by the audience as a whole, there were members of the president's cabinet in attendance as well, was extremely noticeable due to the president's own actions. At one point, towards the end of the speech, he paused. But, as with his many other pauses, no applause came. The president stood there in silence for nearly 3 seconds, a long time for a speech, before any applause came. When it started, it was extremely light led by only a few people. It wasn't until 4 or 5 seconds after his pause that the rest of the audience followed suit with "polite" applause. In the meantime, the president stood there looking not just uncomfortable, but in my opinion, a bit ticked.

Will he who loves attention and accolades take anything from that moment? Since both he and his administration tend to belittle and ridicule those who dare disagree with their policies, I highly doubt he will take those 4 seconds as "a teachable moment".

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OBAMA'S AFGHANISTAN SPEECH AT WEST POINT: POMPOUS, POLITICAL, AND PATHETIC