$1 TRILLION ON WAR IN 10 YEARS --
OBAMA LAST NIGHT , in 15-minute address from East Room, "Remarks by the President on the Way Forward in Afghanistan":
"[T]his has been a difficult decade for our country. We've learned anew the profound cost of war -- a cost that's been paid by the nearly 4,500 Americans who have given their lives in Iraq, and the over 1,500 who have done so in Afghanistan -- men and women who will not live to enjoy the freedom that they defended. ...
Yet tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding. ... These long wars will come to a responsible end. As they do, we must learn their lessons. Already this decade of war has caused many to question the nature of America's engagement around the world. ...
Like generations before, we must embrace America's singular role in the course of human events. But we must be as pragmatic as we are passionate; as strategic as we are resolute. ...
