Obama continues military emphasis

Romney, Ryan woo Florida votes

President Barack Obama speaks to troops, servicemen and military families Friday at the 1st Aviation Support Battalion Hangar at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
President Barack Obama speaks to troops, servicemen and military families Friday at the 1st Aviation Support Battalion Hangar at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

— President Barack Obama continued his emphasis on serving veterans and military families with a visit to Fort Bliss on Friday to announce a new executive order that expands suicide-prevention and substance-abuse services for those who have served in the armed forces.

Obama appeared in Texas on the second anniversary of the end of combat in Iraq, which is not a coincidence, White House advisers said. The president has traveled the country speaking to military audiences about his decision to end that war as well as combat operations in Afghanistan.

Along the way, he has promised to continue his commitment to servicemen, veterans and their families after they return home.

Obama spoke in a large hangar at Fort Bliss, an Army installation close to the Mexican border that is used for missile and artillery training and testing, and is home of the 1st Armored Division as well as the 32nd Army Air & Missile Defense Command.

The president jogged down the steps of Air Force One, stepping onto a sprawling tarmac where the temperature was 92 degrees. His motorcade passed fleets of neatly parked Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache helicopters on the way to the hangar, where 5,000 soldiers and an Army brass band were assembled.

“Coming home can be its own struggle, especially for wounded warriors, so we’ve poured tremendous resources into this effort,” Obama said, the soldiers listening to him shouting “Hooah” after almost every line. “Everyone has a responsibility to help a comrade who’s hurting.

“Part of ending these wars responsibly is caring for those who fought in them,” Obama said. “We may be turning a page on a decade of war, but America’s responsibilities to you have only just begun.”

Obama said he would send troops into harm’s way only when “absolutely necessary” and only with the best equipment.

The president also drew what sounded like a contrast with his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, who has accused the president of drawing down too quickly in Afghanistan.

“We’re not just ending these wars,” Obama said. “We’re doing it in a way that keeps America safe and makes America stronger. And that includes our military. Think about it. Just four years ago, there were some 180,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. By next month, we will have cut that number by nearly two-thirds. So most of our troops have come home.”

Soldiers in heavy fatigues fanned themselves to stay cool against a backdrop of desert, mountains and an Apache helicopter visible through the wide-open hangar doors.

Obama also told the story of meeting a young wounded soldier when he visited Afghanistan this spring. The crowd grew silent as he described walking into Sgt. Chase Haag’s hospital room, where the soldier was suffering a broken leg, fractured back and a face so swollen that he couldn’t open his eyes.

At the end of his visit, Obama said, as he walked out of the room, he heard a rustling sound, turned around and saw that Haag was extending his arm to shake the president’s hand.

“It was a firm Army handshake,” Obama said. “And I don’t think there was a dry eye in that room.”

Obama met Haag a second time at Walter Reed Hospital later this year.

“He had endured multiple surgeries, physical therapy, but this time he was on his feet, he was walking again, and he had his dad next to him. And today he’s back where every soldier wants to be — back with his unit.”

Before his speech, Obama participated in a roundtable discussion with 13 participants who, according to White House press secretary Jay Carney, represented a “broad cross section” of Army ranks. They included two wounded warriors, and several participants were joined by their spouses. They talked about strengthening support programs for servicemen and their families, Carney said.

This was the president’s third visit to Fort Bliss in two years.

The executive order draws from existing resources rather than new appropriations, Carney said. It calls for an increase in mental-health providers serving veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs, more screenings and a new interagency task force to address the issue further.

“We can’t forget,” Carney said. “This country has been engaged in military conflict now for more than 10 years abroad since our first forces went into Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001. A tremendous number of men and women have served in those two countries.”

Carney didn’t pass up the opportunity to criticize Romney. On Thursday, the final night of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Romney accepted his party’s presidential nomination without mentioning Afghanistan.

“I was surprised not to hear mention of the 70,000 men and women who are serving in Afghanistan, executing a mission that is profoundly important to America’s national security in a conflict that was a direct result of an attack on the United States by al-Qaida,” Carney said.

On Wednesday, Obama will travel to Charlotte, N.C., where he will accept his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday.

Before heading separately out of Tampa, Romney and running mate Paul Ryan wooed the voters of powerful Florida, which went for Obama in 2008.

“Hold us accountable. Listen to what we have to say,” Romney said. “I plan on winning in Florida. We love this country, and we’re taking it back.”

Ann Romney, for her part, made the rounds of Friday morning talk shows to offer her husband as the solution to the country’s economic problems, and predicted that argument would hold sway with women who haven’t voted Republican in the past.

Ann Romney said women tell her: “It’s time for the grown-up to come, the man that’s going to take this very seriously and the future of our children very, very seriously. I very much believe this is going to be an economic election, and I think a lot of women may be voting this cycle around in a different way than they usually are, and that is thinking about the economy.”

Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, charged Romney with observing a double standard when it comes to government bailouts, blasting the Republican nominee for his opposition to an auto industry rescue package even after he reportedly benefited from government aid to support his private-equity firm.

Biden highlighted a Rolling Stone magazine report that Bain Capital had secured loans from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that ultimately cost taxpayers $10 million.

The vice president delivered that message on Friday from Lordstown, Ohio, a part of the key battleground state that depends on auto industry jobs. Romney, Biden said, claims now to be against bailouts, and he cited the Republican candidate’s 2008 New York Times op-ed article headlined “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

“He says it’s bad for business. Except when it comes to his business,” Biden said. “It was one thing when a million middle-class jobs were on the line. It was another when his own financial interests and those of his partners were on the line.”

Biden said the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., this week showed the stark choice before the nation this November. He also accused the party of misleading voters, saying much of what Americans heard from the convention was “not on the level.”

He specifically cited Ryan’s “stirring” speech on Wednesday that seemed to blame Obama for the closure of the GM plant in Janesville, Wis., Ryan’s hometown.

“The one thing the congressman was right about — it was devastating for the people in his community. But what he didn’t tell you was that plant in Janesville actually closed while President Bush was still in office,” Biden said.

Though Republican speaker after speaker railed about the state of the economy and growing debts, Biden said, they ignored their party’s role in that collapse.

“When Congressman Ryan came to Congress, things were doing just fine. Balanced budgets, middle class thriving,” he said. “What they didn’t say is the day we were sworn in, we were handed a bill for a $1 trillion deficit for that year, for that fiscal year. They had increased the national debt by $5 trillion.

“How do they think we went from a surplus and the middle class doing well to the time when we came into office, this disaster?” he asked.

Ryan campaign spokesman Brendan Buck responded that Obama inherited a troubled economy but has made it worse.

“Like many towns across America, Janesville, Wis., is still waiting for the recovery the president promised,” Buck said.

Information for this article was contributed by Amy Gardner of The Washington Post; by Ben Feller, Matthew Daly, Nancy Benac, Kasie Hunt, Charles Babington, Steve Peoples, Philip Elliott, Beth Fouhy, Thomas Beaumont, Julie Mazziotta, Jennifer Agiesta, Calvin Woodward, Andrew Welsh-Huggins and Jim Kuhnhenn of The Associated Press and by Michael A. Memoli of the Tribune Washington Bureau.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 09/01/2012

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