yknow, i thought it was alright. keeping the speaker in mind. his speech can easily be read to mean that we are going to commit 30,000 troops and, since everything will not go as we hope in 18 months, they will not be leaving. the whole thing was wrapped in a telltale lawyerly haze whose purpose is precisely to leave open justification for later actions which seem utterly to contradict the sense the reader/audience gets on the first read. personally i think the speech gave reason for optimism in that it signifies that the US security establishment and probably even Obama himself recognizes the deep problems early withdrawal or the appearance of surrender would cause. At this point, i’ll take it. occasionally pragmatic leninists are forced to do something which fulfills the expectations of common sense, and this is one of those occasions. it makes no sense bleating about how obama isn’t curtis lemay. any 3 yr old can see that.