If you care–and you should–then you knew what the president was going to say, and you know how much he didn’t want to say it.
After all–as a candidate–Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton and won the White House because he voted against the war in Iraq, and promised to end it.
So this was a painful moment for him, and a painful moment for us as well.
Because we’re back at war. There may not be combat troops, but there will be boots on the ground, bombs in the air, drones in the sky, with him, as a reluctant Commander-In-Chief.
Neither he, nor we, know how it will go; how long it will last; or what the ultimate cost will be.
And the president had to admit it: “It will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL. And any time we take military action, there are risks involved- especially to servicemen and women who carry out these missions,” he said.
Looking back on President Obama’s six years in office, I’d say there’s never been a time when we all needed to be Americans–not Democrats or Republicans–more than right now: September 10, 2014.