Center for American Progress

STATEMENT: CAP’s Brian Katulis on the State of the Union Speech
Press Statement

STATEMENT: CAP’s Brian Katulis on the State of the Union Speech

The following is a statement by Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, on tonight’s State of the Union speech:

"Tonight President Obama highlighted once again that keeping Americans safe from terrorist threats does not require open-ended military commitments with no end in sight. By reaffirming the start of a transition in Afghanistan this summer while strongly asserting that America will defeat Al Qaeda, the president sent the right messages to our allies and enemies alike.

Now the administration must do a better job at defining what it means by ‘transition’ in Afghanistan and start outlining a strategy that moves beyond the global war on terror and fundamentally changes the mindset of how we think about what it takes to keep America safe."

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