Tag: kinsley gaffe

The technical term for this is ‘mercenary free company.’

I believe that this qualifies as a “Kinsley gaffe:” which is to say, a politician accidentally telling the truth. Background: this was from a press conference where the President was trying to explain why his foreign policy was such an improvement over georgewbushgeorgewbushgeorgewbush’s, despite the fact that it lacks a coherent conceptual framework, an overall philosophy, a clear set of objectives, and any sort of domestic input and/or oversight. But it has the French on-board, so that’s good! We’re much better when we permit other countries to get to move our soldiers around on the geopolitical board.

NO. REALLY. That’s what he said.

…that’s why building this international coalition has been so important because it means that the United States is not bearing all the cost. It means that we have confidence that we are not going in alone, and it is our military that is being volunteered by others to carry out missions that are important not only to us, but are important internationally.

Bolding mine, and screencap here. See Ed Driscoll and Ed Morrissey for more; it is only by their good example that I am restraining myself from lapsing into some fairly vile profanity over this.

Continue reading Barack Obama on US Military: available for “being volunteered by others.”