Update: Here's a link to the speech.
Obama talked about what the Bush administration squandered: Everything. College affordability, new energy technologies... Instead we've lost thousands of American lives, spent trillions, alienation in the world to fight a war that shouldn't have been fought. "This war diminishes our security."
Here's the main difference on Obama and McCain on the War: Sen McCain keeps talking about tactics in Iraq. But what is the Bush McCain strategy, the purpose, the plan in Iraq. McCain Bush, have no plan. Obama wants an overarching strategy. You can't accomplish a goal without setting a vision.
Obama: Bush-McCain say we can't leave when violence is up or down. We can't have a timetable because it would be "surrender." We're not going to kill every al Qaeda sympathizer. The accusation of surrender is false rhetoric to defend a failed policy.
The U.S. needs to commit $2 billion for displaced Iraqis. We'll make it clear we'll have no permanent bases in Iraq. That's what Iraq and America wants.
The central front on the "war on terror" was never Iraq. It never was. The terrorist is in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama will send at least 2 additional brigades (about 5,000 soldiers) to Afghanistan.
We need to triple non-military aid to Pakistan.
Instead of threatening to kick Russia out of G8, we need to work with them on nuclear non proliferation.
Ending the tyranny of oil in our time. The price of oil is the most dangerous weapon. It funds radical madrasas, shifts leverage to dictators. This is where an energy policy comes in.
America needs to rebuild its alliances, he said. That helps prevent war and promote peace.
This speech was rich, rich, rich, so I wasn't able to get everything on the first go around but I'm sure video and text will be out later.
I don't why people can't see that McCain is but a shadow of the thinker and the leader that Obama is. People talk about experience, experience. What about brilliance and talent? Bush didn't have experience. He obviously has been propped up his whole life by sidekicks.
After listening to Bush, who could've just as well been McCain, this morning and listening to Obama, the difference is stark.
