Word: speeches
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...leaks and speculation are anything to go on, President Barack Obama will deliver a number of different messages in his Tuesday-night speech about the war in Afghanistan. He will announce plans to send some 30,000 additional troops to the war zone. He will lay out benchmarks that the government of Hamid Karzai will be expected to meet. He may even sketch a timetable for an eventual U.S. withdrawal. At some point, he will likely describe the conflict in Afghanistan as a war of necessity...
...mere fact that Obama has reached a decision on Afghanistan, coupled with the speech's West Point backdrop and the President's oratorical gifts, will probably boost public support for the war effort in the short run. But it is unlikely to convince most Americans that a war that has already lasted more than eight years is worth fighting indefinitely. Even if Obama sets a target date for leaving Afghanistan, he'll still be asking the public to sign on to a major escalation that will see many more Americans killed and wounded, and will cost hundreds of billions more...
...second problem with the national-security argument is that it is rhetorically defensive - it defines the U.S. mission in Afghanistan in terms of what American troops are fighting against, but provides little sense of what the country is fighting for. (See what to watch for in Obama's Afghanistan speech...
...Downplaying the moral component of the American project in Afghanistan may be smart if Obama's goal is to show he's not Bush. But it won't ultimately help win more support for his strategy - and it will ensure that his speech scores with pundits but not with the American people. The most memorable and effective wartime presidential speeches have blended hardheaded statements of resolve with appeals to higher purpose. At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln vowed that the Union would complete "the great task remaining before us" yet made it clear that the goal was not just to defeat...
...imperatives of the Afghan campaign, it would be just as shortsighted for Obama to ignore them altogether. History shows that Americans are far more willing to support a war that they believe is worthy of their ideals. If Obama hopes to rally the American people behind his strategy, his speech needs to convince them that the war in Afghanistan meets that test...