The United States cannot win in Iraq and Afghanistan by going it alone, President Obama told cadets yesterday in his commencement address at the US Military Academy at West Point.
“America has not succeeded by stepping out of the currents of cooperation — we have succeeded by steering those currents in the direction of liberty and justice, so nations thrive by meeting their responsibilities and face consequences when they don’t,” the president said.
Obama spoke to nearly 1,000 West Point grads yesterday, returning to the military academy in the Hudson Valley just seven months after appearing there to announce a new troop surge for Afghanistan.
“We face a tough fight in Afghanistan,” he told the young cadets who will soon go off to battle. “We have to shape an international order that can meet the challenges of our generation.”
Obama said the United States must strengthen old alliances while building new partnerships.
The president’s call for renewed international commitment in Afghanistan came as some US allies have grown weary of the costs and casualties of a long deployment.
Canada is planning to remove 2,800 troops from Afghanistan next year. In February, the prime minister of the Netherlands drew heavy criticism within his country when he tried to keep 2,000 of his nation’s troops in the region this year.
Such moves, coupled with reluctance toward an increased role in Afghanistan, has sparked fears that other NATO countries could follow suit. This is the ninth graduating class at West Point since the Afghanistan war began, and the president warned that the end of the war would not be quick, or simple.
“This engagement is not an end in itself,” he said. “The international order we seek is one that can resolve the challenges of our times — countering violent extremism and insurgency.
“The threat will not go away soon, but let’s be clear: Al Qaeda and its affiliates are small men on the wrong side of history,” he added. “They lead no nation. They lead no religion. We need not give in to fear every time a terrorist tries to scare us.”
Obama said he was humbled by the hard work of the cadets and that most of them are expected to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan.
“You have pushed yourself through the agony of Beast Barracks, the weeks of training in rain and mud, and, I’m told, more inspections and drills than perhaps any class before you,” the president said. “Along the way, I’m sure you faced a few moments when you asked yourself: ‘What am I doing here?’ I have those moments sometimes.”
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An Upper East Sider made history yesterday as West Point valedictorian in a year when — for the first time — the academy’s top two students were women.
“I was just very honored the president was here and I was able to talk to him,” said Alexandra Rosenberg, 21.