Royal Institute for Traditional Arts launches training on Al-Qatt Al-Asiri art    Nearly 2 million worshippers prayed in Rawdah at Prophet's Mosque during Hajj 1446    Saudi Arabia expands tech talent schools to five regions for 2025    Aubameyang exits Al Qadsiah as club turns to youth with Retegui signing    France withdraws troops from Senegal, ending military presence in West Africa    Germany's Merz and UK's Starmer sign 'first of its kind' defense and migration treaty    Norway leads Europe's best airports list    Syrian forces leave Sweida after ceasefire with Druze militias goes into effect    Main stage at Belgium's Tomorrowland music festival completely destroyed by fire    Sports vehicles can have now short number plates    Saudi Arabia draw Iraq and Indonesia in 2026 World Cup Asian play-off group    Saudi conjoined twins Yara and Lara successfully separated in 12.5-hour surgery    Babies made using three people's DNA are born free of hereditary disease    'Art of the Kingdom' exhibition to open in Beijing's National Museum on July 30    Saudi minister holds strategic AI and tech talks with French institutions in Paris    ASICS and Saudi Sports for All launch startup pitch to boost sports innovation in Saudi Arabia    Youth-led Saudi businesses exceed 474K    Scientists recover proteins from a 24 million-year-old rhino fossil    Jorge Jesus returns to Saudi Arabia as Al Nassr head coach on one-year deal    Jannik Sinner beats Carlos Alcaraz to win his maiden Wimbledon title    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Obama as war candidate
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 04 - 05 - 2012


BY DAVID ESPO
The Associated Press
As slogans go, President Barack Obama's promise of the “light of a new day” in Afghanistan is not nearly as catchy as the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln the day President George W. Bush announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq in 2003.
One was jubilant, conveying triumph prematurely so, as more than 4,000 US combat deaths over the next several years demonstrated. The other, more restrained, optimistically cites progress toward an ultimate victory over the terrorists who attacked the United States more than a decade ago.
Yet the take-away messages fit the political circumstances of the president in office at the time. Then it was Bush prosecuting an Iraq war that was intensely controversial from the outset. Now it is Obama seeking re-election in a campaign against Mitt Romney that is anything but certain, polishing his credentials as commander in chief.
The polls all say the economy will be the overarching issue this fall, but Obama can hardly be blamed for wanting the singular triumph of his term - Osama Bin Laden's death at the hands of US special operations forces - to gain plenty of attention.
After all, the death of the terrorist leader got equal billing with the slowly recovering economy in Vice President Joe Biden's own suggested campaign slogan: “Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.” As a political strategy after three years in office, blaming Bush for the war in Afghanistan probably is not any better than trying to saddle him with responsibility for the economy.
Still, Obama chose to reprise his 2008 campaign criticism of Bush's war policy in his brief 10-minute address on Tuesday night from Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.
“Despite initial success, for a number of reasons, this war has taken longer than most anticipated,” he said, beginning his account neutrally before pivoting.
“In 2002, (Osama) Bin Laden and his lieutenants escaped across the border and established safe haven in Pakistan,” this president said, referring to the battle at Tora Bora. “America spent nearly eight years fighting a different war in Iraq.”
But over the past three years, he said, referring to his own time in office: “The tide has turned. We broke the Taliban's momentum. We've built a strong Afghan security force. We devastated Al-Qaeda's leadership, taking out 20 of their top 30 leaders. And one year ago, from a base here in Afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.”
Romney decided he wanted no part of it.
In a written statement issued as Air Force One carried Obama homeward, he said he was pleased the president had returned to Afghanistan, and that the troops and the American people deserved to hear from him what is at stake in the war. “Success in Afghanistan is vital to our nation's security,” he said.
It was a different Romney earlier in the week, struggling to outmaneuver Obama in the run-up to the anniversary of the Bin Laden's death.
In fact, Obama and Biden had set him up over the course of a week.
“We know what President Obama did,” Biden said in New York last week, referring to the decision to send Navy SEALs to Bin Laden's lair in Pakistan. “We can't say for certain what Gov. Romney would have done.” An Obama campaign web video soon followed, including a quote from a 2007 Romney interview in which he said it was not worth “moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”
Answering Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press,” Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie said the president's team had gone a step too far. “I think if President Obama had said ‘I'm proud of this,' people would have said he should be proud of this. It's the extra iteration. It's the attack that Gov. Romney wouldn't have done it,” Gillespie said.
On Monday, Romney himself answered.
“Of course” he would have ordered Bin Laden killed, he said. “Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.” From the East Room of the White House, Obama challenged his rival's truthfulness as well as his national security qualifications.
“I assume that people meant what they said when they said it,” he said, referring to Romney's 2007 interview. “That's been at least my practice. ... I said that I'd go after Bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they'd do something else, then I'd go ahead and let them explain it.” __


Clic here to read the story from its source.