https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2013/01/14/hey-americas-not-in-decline/feed/HotAir is the leading conservative blog for breaking news and commentary covering the Biden administration, politics, media, culture, and current elections.en-usTue, 09 Jun 2026 16:26:31 -0400<![CDATA[The president always considered our intervention in Iraq a distracting mistake. Most Americans are happy our troops are out. He’s been far more ambivalent about Afghanistan, for political as well as substantive reasons. Like many Democrats, he saw the war in Afghanistan as justified by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in a way Iraq was not. But time and conditions on the ground have convinced him that there are limits to what the United States can accomplish there. He’s trying to extract our troops in a careful but expeditious way. He has been reluctant to commit to large-scale public action in Syria on the grounds of prudence: The calculus of costs and benefits is not at all clear to him or to his advisers.]]>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:40:28 -0500<![CDATA[Allahpundit]]>https://hotair.com/headlines/2013/01/14/hey-americas-not-in-decline-n99212