Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Worth reading: Running into Obama at the cemetery

James Gordon Meek, a reporter for the New York Daily News, happened to run into President Obama and the First Lady Arlington National Cemetery the other day. His account is well worth reading. Meek was visting the grave of a friend who was killed in Iraq when they began conversing. Well, we appreciate his service ...

576986_091113_obamaarlington25.jpg
576986_091113_obamaarlington25.jpg

James Gordon Meek, a reporter for the New York Daily News, happened to run into President Obama and the First Lady Arlington National Cemetery the other day. His account is well worth reading. Meek was visting the grave of a friend who was killed in Iraq when they began conversing.

James Gordon Meek, a reporter for the New York Daily News, happened to run into President Obama and the First Lady Arlington National Cemetery the other day. His account is well worth reading. Meek was visting the grave of a friend who was killed in Iraq when they began conversing.

Well, we appreciate his service very much,” Obama told me.

I then told him I’m a reporter for the Daily News — but was just there to visit friends.

“Well, James,” he said, looking me in the eye, “just because you’re a journalist doesn’t mean you can’t honor your friends here.”

I also liked the president’s comments yesterday when he stopped off at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska.

Two days ago, we gathered at Fort Hood and we honored 13 Americans taken from us: soldiers and caregivers; mothers and fathers; husbands and wives; sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. We grieved with families who have endured unimaginable loss. And we found inspiration in the wounded, their spirits unbowed, and in those who braved the bullets so that others might live.

Yesterday, we gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to salute proud veterans who served on foreign fields long ago and wounded warriors from today. And as citizens of a grateful nation, we are humbled by such service.

Today, we gather here, at Elmendorf. And we see the same spirit. It’s the spirit that I saw in the outstanding airmen and soldiers I met with a few moments ago. It’s the spirit that I see in all of you.”

It has been quite a week for Obama and the military. Maybe he can pull off this lousy couple of months he has had on the national security front.

Photo: TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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