Obama SOTU Address 2.55% on Iraq and Afghanistan

Obama, as he himself said, still is in the middle of fighting two wars, wars which, again according to him, are one of the main reasons for the massive deficit that he ran his first year. And yet, out of a State of the Union speech of 7171 words, he only used 90 of those words on the War on Terror in Afghanistan and only 93 words on the War on Terror in Iraq. That is 183 words out of 7171, or only 2.55% of his speech that was devoted to these two wars.

So what exactly did our wartime President say about these wars?

In Afghanistan, we are increasing our troops and training Afghan Security Forces so they can begin to take the lead in July of 2011, and our troops can begin to come home. We will reward good governance, reduce corruption, and support the rights of all Afghans - men and women alike. We are joined by allies and partners who have increased their own commitment, and who will come together tomorrow in London to reaffirm our common purpose. There will be difficult days ahead. But I am confident we will succeed.

Summery: We are increasing our troop strength because its needed and is doing good things, but we're going to yank them out in a year, but not before we say hopeful things.

As we take the fight to al Qaeda, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people. As a candidate, I promised that I would end this war, and that is what I am doing as President. We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August. We will support the Iraqi government as they hold elections, and continue to partner with the Iraqi people to promote regional peace and prosperity. But make no mistake: this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home.

Summery: After Bush's surge won the day in Iraq, which Obama opposed, we will pull our troops out. Everything else about this situation we will just pretend is not important enough to mention to Congress and the nation.

The War on Terror in Iraq and in Afghanistan has cost our nation a lot of political capital, a lot of money, and a lot of good men and women. Obama should have spent more than 2.55% of his historic first SOTU address on those subjects.