The full transcript of the speech is here.
What I was most struck by while watching the speech last night is that it sounded shockingly like a Bush speech (though competently delivered), from the meat of the policy even down to turns of phrase like "promote our values" and "spread hope." Shiver.
Iain moaned bitterly about America making the same mistakes as had the British empire: "We were building trains in India while British children didn't have decent public schools to attend." And now his adopted country is doing the same thing, as if there isn't a history to clearly underline the foolhardiness of this plan.
We were both shocked as well by Obama, who typically doesn't shy away from nuance and details, continually speaking about Afghanistan as if it is a nation in the same manner as the US or UK: But Afghanistan is, of course, not the same. The reason nation-building hasn't worked there (and will continue to not work) is because there is not a national identity to hold together the disparate tribes that comprise its population. It was strange to see such a glaring omission of so basic a fact from Obama's address, although I suppose its inclusion would elicit precisely the sort of questions that Obama hopes to avoid.
Like: Why?
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