Recently, President Obama delivered a speech to U.S. troops stationed at Tampa, Florida’s MacDill Air Force Base wherein he discussed many of his administration’s actions regarding the military in the last eight years. He talked about strengthening American allies, fighting terrorism and protecting the U.S. homeland, among other topics.
During the last eight years, American troops have fought bravely in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and in other nations to protect American lives and interests and those of other nations. The U.S. has brought peace to some nations, but chaos and destruction to others.
Much of the president’s speech focused on boilerplate about American values of not seizing resources from enemies (claims that are dubious for the above-listed countries) and of showing the world that the U.S. cares about the rule of law.
But Obama also chose to highlight another American value: the right to freely protest against authority. Obama even emphasized that this right extended to criticizing the president, who for American troops is also their commander-in-chief.
Was this a not-so-subtle dig at new President-elect Donald Trump?
Considering that many American troops supported and voted for the country’s new leader, this was an odd statement to make, to say the least. Watch the clip, and judge for yourself what you think Obama’s intentions really were.
