Biden says end to wars gives foreign policy new flexibility
Source: Tampa Bay Times
WEST POINT, N.Y. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States can now focus on new global challenges after a long decade of war in an election-year commencement address to jubilant graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
"Winding down these long wars has enabled us to replace and rebalance our foreign policy," Biden told the Army cadets and their families at the storied academy's football stadium.
Biden's speech echoed some of the themes of military success struck by President Barack Obama in his commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Wednesday. Biden, like Obama, said U.S. combat troops have returned home from Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan is winding down and American commandos killed al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
"Those warriors sent a message to the world that if you harm America, we will follow you to the end of the earth," Biden said.
Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/biden-says-end-to-wars-gives-foreign-policy-new-flexibility/1232248
Vice President Joe Biden presents a diploma to valedictorian Alexander George Pagoulatos during a graduation and commissioning ceremony at West Point on Saturday.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)...you've left exposed the corollary:
If you send America's same warriors into war based on lies and fraud, no one in power will even, ever, try to hold you accountable.
Alamuti Lotus
(3,093 posts)Apparently they've decided there's nothing more worth blowing up in AfPak or Iraq, so Yemen, Somalia, and Syria better watch out! Or perhaps the powers that be will decide that there's people in Mali, Nigeria, or some other part of Africa that need to be blown up.. There's always suitable targets somewhere in the world for US imperialism, no matter what party appears to be in power.
CountAllVotes
(20,863 posts)The more wars the merrier eh?
may3rd
(593 posts)Biden tells West Point cadets: prepare for new threats
....unveiled a new military strategy earlier this year that would "pivot" U.S. attention to Asia ...
...Biden was careful not to suggest there could be conflict looming in Asia, but said the growth of international commerce with the region made it necessary for the United States to give it more attention.
"The most critical relationship to get right is that between the United States and China
....The Obama administration also wants stronger ties with other emerging powers like India, Brazil, Russia, Turkey and South Africa, said Biden, who has played an important role advising the president on foreign policy as well as making his re-election case on the 2012 campaign trail.
He did not say what he expects to transpire in Iran and North Korea, where tensions about nuclear programs are running high, nor in Syria where street violence continues
....Biden said - - be ready to adapt their counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism and other training to new horizons, "from cyber space to outer space."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/26/us-usa-biden-military-idUSBRE84P0E020120526
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Last paragraph of the article:
"This is your destiny, to lead your country. You are the leaders of your generation, the 9/11 generation, which I predict will go down in history as the finest generation this nation has ever produced," he said.
Cheney couldn't have said it better. What is going on here?