Barack Obama is showing his inexperience in the first 24 hours after announcing his candidacy for president. Now, I think it’s entirely possible Obama may make a good candidate in another four or five years, but I think he needs a little work. Especially in math.
The background: Obama said if he’s elected, he’d bring the troops home by March 2008. John Howard, Australia’s Prime Minister, thought it was a bad idea.
CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) — Australia’s conservative Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday that victory for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama and his party in next year’s presidential election would be a boon for terrorists.
“If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats,” Howard said, speaking on “Sunday,” a TV show on Australia’s Nine Network.
Obama struck back:
Mr. Obama said Australia had sent 1,400 troops to Iraq, a fraction of the American force.
“If he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq,†Mr. Obama said. “Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.â€
Actually, it’s nearly impossible to send another 20,000 Australian troops to Iraq. The entire Australian army currently numbers about 25,000 troops. That would be because Australia has less than one-tenth the population of America, so when you realize that the U.S. has 140,000 troops in Iraq, and Australia has 1,400, the math is just about right. However, Howard’s working on building up the army. He’s adding another 2,600 troops for the next year—which would equate to the U.S. Armed Services bulking up by about another 150,000 troops.
Yeah, Australia’s got that great big land mass. But they have a little more than 20 million people on the continent. America has over 300 million.
This is why I have zero confidence that Obama can do the job. He can’t even do the math.
I’m sorry, but it isn’t really too terribly difficult to know that Australia’s population is only a fraction of ours. And it’s not too much to ask that a presidential candidate have someone available to find out something simple, like the size of the Australian army. It took me a ten-second Google search.
Rudy’d never make that mistake. Then again, Rudy would never say he’s bringing the troops home by next March. Rudy would say they’re staying until they get the job done.
As far as I can honestly tell, I will never vote for a Democrat in the near future. I just cant. In my mind a vote for a Democrat is a vote for Islamofascism. Even a Muslim Apostate like Obama should recognize that.
If you are going to bash someone for not doing the math, it would be better to get it right yourself. The US has 15 times the population of Australia, so if we have to put 10,000 troops into Iraq to have a force proportionate to the US one. And increasing our army by 2,600 is like the US increasing theirs by 40,000, not 150,000.
Barack did your Mama teach you the rudiments of math? Give me RG !
I thought 10% of 140,000 was 14,000
In as much as President Bush serves until January 20th, 2009, Barack doesn’t even seem to know when he would get the job he claims to want.
Now that’s a great start to a campaign.
Tim: I was rounding. Multiplying and dividing in your head is easier by 10 than 15.
Lorne: The total number of U.S. troops is about 1.5 million. (The link in that sentence leads to the entry with those figures.) Ten percent of that is 150,000. See, Tim? Easier to do in our heads.
Besides, like Barbie said: Math is hard
But now you’ve compared the number of Americans in their army vs. the number of Australians in Iraq.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Australia
Australia has 71k troops on a population of 21 million = .3%
US has 1.5 million out of 300 million = .5%
To get to .5% Australia would have to grow its army by 105000, almost double it. But does Australia need to have the same level of army as the US? What is its requirement.
i loved obama’s answer. i don’t think he could’ve done any better. howard is almost as hated in his country as bush is here. he won’t be re elected.
Lorne: I should never do math after midnight. You’re right. My ten percent was wrong. Sigh.
Also, the article I cited said Australia has 26,000 troops.
Australia doesn’t really have any enemies nearby that they can’t handle. They’re probably more at risk from the Jihadis within than any exterior problem.
No problem… you’re right so many other times, 1 weird math issue is nothing.
I was also curious how many Americans are in Afghanistan. Answer is around 23000.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/16666483.htm
If Howard is so hated why was he reelected? Obama is a light weight who is definitely not yet ready for prime time.
Obama is still relatively new to politics. He still must master the art of straight-faced lying. Perhaps he’ll pick that up from Hill & Bill.
chsw
Hillary will give him a lesson by cranking up the Clinton Attack Machine to slander him.
Obama needs to wait until he’s somewhat more seasoned as a national politician before he seriously attempts the White House run. Right now he’s still an empty suit, sort of an American Segolene Royal. His positions are standard liberal-left cliches.