1.) Der Spiegel points out that the West Point cadets who were used as a photo-op prop were ordered to respond enthusiastically to the speech - a speech that didn't seem authentic:
One didn't have to be a cadet on Tuesday to feel a bit of nausea upon hearing Obama's speech. It was the least truthful address that he has ever held. He spoke of responsibility, but almost every sentence smelled of party tactics. He demanded sacrifice, but he was unable to say what it was for exactly.
Source: Der Spiegel
2.) The New York Times points out that Democrats in Congress are not happy with Obama's decision to send more troops to the region.
3.) The UK Times points out that the danger of Obama's speech is that it could send the wrong message to the wrong people:
What the President intended was for audiences in the US and Afghanistan to hear different things. His message to the domestic audience was supposed to be “troops home in 18 months” and to the Taleban, “30,000 extra troops”. My worry is that the wrong people got the wrong message. What the US heard was “30,000 more troops” while what the Taleban heard was “in 18 months, they’ll be gone”.
Source: The UK Times
4.) Confederate Yankee compares Obama's speech to that of King Solomon:
The key to mimicking Solomon-like wisdom is to understand when the great biblical king was making an absurd suggestion to prompt truth, and when he was being direct.The President's speech at West Point was anything but wise; it was instead the purest display of strategic incompetence and political pandering of an arrogant and self-serving career.
He put more troops in harm's way and conceded defeat in just three paragraphs.
Obama does not have the intestinal fortitude to win the war, nor the character to declare that the war (in his opinion) is not worth fighting. Nor does he have the courage to admit he lied to the American people as he campaigned, when he repeatedly said Afghanistan was the war we must fight and win.
Instead, our Commander in Chief abdicates his responsibility to the men and women who serve this nation in uniform, and commits 30,000 more American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines to a war he has already conceded.
Every wound and death in Afghanistan from this moment on is blood spilled needlessly by a craven coward who lacks the basic integrity and leadership required of the office of the Presidency.
Source: Confederate Yankee
5.) And Bill Ayers - Obama's terrorist friend - is already protesting:
