Obama: Rushing into War ‘Too Often Would Play into the Hands of Our Enemies’

“VFW, when I took office, you were the very first veteran’s convention I addressed and I talked with you about how we needed a new vision of American leadership in the world. For too long there had been a mindset when the first instinct when facing a challenge in the world was to send in our military and we have the greatest military in human history. But we learned painfully, where that kind of thinking can lead. That rushing into war without thinking through the consequences and going it alone without broad international support; getting drawn into unnecessary conflicts and spreading our military too thin, actually too often would play into the hands of our enemies. That’s what they wanted us to do. And who paid the price? Our men and women in uniform, our wounded warriors, our fallen heroes who never come home. Their families who carry that loss forever. And so I said then that our brave troops and their families deserve better. We cannot expect our military to bear the entire burden of our national security alone. Everybody has to support our national security.”