Accepting the Obvious

Disclaimer: I didn't listen to the President's speech last night or the Democratic response by Senator Jack Reed. I'm reacting to how it was reported on "liberally biased" NPR this morning.

The lead on the President's speech was, "I have decided to accept the recommendation of General Petraeus..." Most reports earlier this week, during analysis and "wait time" for the Petraeus/Crocker testimony before Congress noted that the troops that will be pulled out next year aren't being replaced because they can't be. The only way to keep the troop levels up is to have them stay in Iraq longer, or institute a draft. Which of course they'd have to do now in order to have soldiers drafted and trained in time. Between that and "the more successful we are the more troops we can bring home." The speech sounds like not much more than hot air and wasted time.

What I would have hoped to be the lead off the Democratic response was what you see in the above paragraph. The fact that more troops aren't coming home isn't what's important. They knew that going in. Reed should have simply left it at there was nothing new here and this isn't really a force reduction. Its the result of the tour extensions running their course.

So instead of anything enlightening the airtime was wasted stating the obvious and beating injured if not dead political horses. And people wonder why American elections have some of the lowest turnout levels in the world.