Inauguration speech (January 2009)
The project of the first two years has been to effectively deal with the legacy issues that we inherited, particularly the Iraq war, the Afghan war, and the war against al Qaeda, while rebalancing our resources and our posture in the world. If you were to boil it all down to a bumper sticker, it's, 'Wind down these two wars, reestablish American standing and leadership in the world, and focus on a broader set of priorities, from Asia and the global economy to a nuclear-nonproliferation regime.'
-- Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, May 2011
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