THE ENEMY. Lots of Iran references in the speech, of course, and a newly precise articulation of how, exactly, it can be that Sunni al-Qaeda and Shiite Iranians can comprise some kind of common "terrorist" enemy to the U.S. "The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat," the president said. The enemy, in other words, is extremism in the Middle East. It's banal, obvious, but still important to point out that defining an enemy in these kind of broad and hazy terms does not make for an operational strategy, either for carrying out an ongoing hot war or for shaping a regional foreign policy posture. It is, instead, a recipe for open-ended catastrophe and overreach.
Glad to see the prez salute Dikembe Mutombo and the New York subway hero guy, though.
--Sam Rosenfeld