Mission Accomplished: Obama declares Afghan combat operations have ended

You'd think the end of Afghan combat operations would be front page news, no?

At about 21:39 in this YouTube video interview posted yesterday, President Obama declares, "As I said, we will be out of Afghanistan by the end of this year." Then he declares, "Combat operations in Afghanistan have ended."

Wow, even with all the top-notch reporters out covering the snow somebody should have started cheering. Nope. Media silence. That whole "Mission Accomplished" thing must not have the same sizzle anymore. Maybe because he wasn't standing on an aircraft carrier flight deck while he said it.

What's that? He misspoke? Really? Oh, I see. Was the wrong script loaded into TOTUS? No? You mean President Cerebral, the guy who never misses an opportunity to remind us how smart he is, was confused?

Yup. He was actually speaking about Iraq.

It was unclear whether Obama realized his mistake. He then correctly stated the situation in Afghanistan, saying the United States would start withdrawing some forces beginning in July, with the goal of handing over full security responsibilities to the Afghan government in 2014.

Hey, the guy's tired, everybody makes mistakes, what's the big deal, right?

Sure, give him a mulligan.

It's not as if someone who really has to be on top of their game 24x7, like say Sarah Palin, managed to confuse one war for another. Then we'd have to endure another round of idiotic Tina Fey skits and TNT debauchery — "Iraq? What about my rack?" — sounds sufficiently sophomoric for their tastes and about what we'd expect from America's serious journalists anyway.

The narrative is that he's a brilliant speaker. Facts that interfere with the narrative get ignored.

But of course.

Posted at 15:30 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Perm Link |
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