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Obama: America a Superpower
'Whether We Like It or Not'
FoxNews. April 15, 2010. In a little-noticed remark at the close of the
two-day nuclear security summit in Washington, D.C., this week,
President Obama suggested the United States was somehow burdened by its
military might.
Being a superpower ain't all that, at least according to President
Obama.
In a little-noticed remark at the close of the two-day nuclear security
summit in Washington, D.C., this week, President Obama suggested the
United States is somehow burdened by its military might -- a comment
that drew a stern rebuke from his former rival in the presidential
campaign.
Obama was responding to a question Tuesday about how the summit would
play into peace-making efforts in the Middle East when he addressed the
downsides of -- by virtue of America's world stature -- being obligated
to intervene in international conflicts.
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce
these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant
military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we
get pulled into them," Obama said. "And that ends up costing us
significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
The remark got little attention in mainstream coverage of the summit,
but was picked up on several conservative blogs, which panned the
president for suggesting Americans had grown weary of superpower status.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., slammed the leader of the free world
Thursday, calling the remark a "direct contradiction to everything
America believes in."
"That's one of the more incredible statements I've ever heard a
president of the United States make in modern times," McCain, a Vietnam
veteran and former prisoner of war, told Fox News. "We are the dominant
superpower, and we're the greatest force for good in the history of this
country, and I thank God every day that we are a dominant superpower."
Source: FoxNews.
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