[](/sites/default/files/uploads/2012/05/obama35.jpg)This week, President Obama finally came out to the world as a same-sex marriage supporter. Like Rosie O’Donnell, everyone knew what President Obama was long ago; still, his timing was bizarre, coming a day after North Carolina overwhelmingly stood up for traditional marriage.
What was even weirder, though, was Obama’s language in embracing same-sex marriage:
[W]hen I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.
It’s easy to miss the key point in this Melville-ian sentence. It isn’t that Obama supports same-sex marriage. It’s that he thinks that soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors are “out there fighting on my behalf.”
Say what?
The members of the US military fight on behalf of all Americans, not Obama personally. Now, it’s possible that President Obama meant just that – he was expressing individual gratitude for a collective benefit we all receive from the military.
Or, it’s possible that Obama thinks that the troops are out there carrying out his work.
Based on Obama’s treatment of the killing of troops in the past, it’s quite likely the latter. Take, for example, Obama’s trip to South Korea in 2009, in which he told troops that they made a “pretty good photo-op.” Or Obama giving himself a shout-out for flying to Afghanistan last week … in the middle of giving shout-outs to actual troop units on the ground in country. Or, most egregiously, Obama patting himself on the back repeatedly regarding the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Obama seems to see the troops as his personal plaything. It’s certainly true politically – last week, he announced that on behalf of the troops, he would be transforming America:
As a new greatest generation returns from overseas, we must ask ourselves, what kind of country will they come back to? Will it be a country where a shrinking number of Americans do really well while a growing number barely get by? Or will it be a country where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules – a country with opportunity worthy of the troops who protect us?
The troops are a prop for Obama. They either do his bidding abroad so that he’s free to pursue his agenda at home, or they can be used as excuses to push for a more socialistic government domestically.
Even when Obama is attempting to be self-effacing, his arrogance shines through. Troops, both gay and straight, should be offended by his tendency to politick with their sacrifice, and to treat their sacrifice as action on his personal behalf.
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