After gutting the military, El Presidente Obama awards himself Pentagon’s Distinguished Public Service Medal

He’s done more damage to American military power than his successor can repair. It’s not simply that Obama tried to end U.S. involvement in the Middle East by unilaterally withdrawing from Iraq, conducting a phony surge in Afghanistan, and failing to respond to the civil war in Syria. It’s not just that Obama did little beyond telling Vladimir Putin to “cut it out” after Russia annexed Crimea and after Putin otherwise exploited whatever opportunity arose to unravel the post–Cold War peace of Europe, or that Obama neglected to back up the promise of a “Pacific pivot” as the Chinese dredged their way (island-making instead of island-hopping) across the South China Sea. Retreats can be reversed, even if the price of victory rises when it has to be won twice (or three or four times, in the case of Iraq). Obama not only restrained the American habit of involving ourselves in the world’s affairs but also, by reducing our military power, constrained a future president’s ability to do so. The propensity to “resort to force,” in his view, was a disease shared nearly equally by past presidents of both parties.

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The movie sparked national awareness of the World War II generation’s sacrifices. Cohen said it helped reconnect the American public with the nation’s men and women in uniform. Spielberg’s “masterpiece poignantly captured the stirring sacrifices of America’s World War II heroes, and paid living tribute to their indomitable fighting spirit,” Cohen stated in the award citation. The film is a “historic contribution to the national consciousness, reminding all Americans that the legacy of freedom enjoyed today endures in great measure because of their selfless and courageous actions.” “Saving Private Ryan” also prompted veterans to reveal personal war stories, Cohen said. “For decades, many of the veterans struggled to find the right words, the right way to share with family and friends what they had suffered through during that war. Over the past year, we have heard so many stories of veterans, who after seeing this film, finally venturing forth to tell a son, a daughter, or a grandchild of their experience. “So this film has not only provided an emotional catharsis for yesterday’s veterans, but a reminder to today’s soldiers that the ‘gift outright’ was many deeds of war, that blood and bone and soul was sacrified [sic] so that a mechanized evil in Europe would not triumph and stamp out the fires of freedom,” Cohen concluded.

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