You probably won’t notice the makeover the Oval Office recently underwent when President Obama takes to the airwaves tonight to announce the end of combat operations in Iraq. Traditionally, it’s all commander-in-chief close-up during Oval Office addresses, but printed beneath the president’s feet on a new beige and blue carpet (installed this week) will be five quotes selected by Obama:
“The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Towards Justice” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Government of the People, By the People, For the People” – President Abraham Lincoln
“No Problem of Human Destiny is Beyond Human Beings” – President John F. Kennedy
“The Welfare of Each of Us is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us” – President Theodore Roosevelt
Maybe more than any other president in recent history, this president is aware of what came before him. He’s reminded of what came just before him every time an American soldier is killed in Iraq. To date, the war in Iraq has claimed more than 4,400 US soldiers, according to CNN.
That number will grow. Although the last combat troops leave Iraq Tuesday, nearly 50,000 US troops will remain in the country in an advisory role. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said over and over again that tonight, the president won’t utter the words “mission accomplished” or voice the sentiment in any intentional way.
“Tomorrow marks a change in our mission,” Gibbs told reporters Monday. “It marks a milestone that we have achieved in removing our combat troops. That is not to say that violence is going to end tomorrow.”
On Monday, the president awarded 11 Purple Hearts to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. On Tuesday, he flew to El Paso, Texas to honor veterans at Fort Bliss. He’ll arrive back in Washington in time to deliver an 8 p.m. ET speech from behind the Resolute desk, a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. It’s the same desk that was modified to accommodate FDR’s wheelchair, and the desk that served as one of several workstations for Harry Truman, who made the first televised presidential address from the White House in 1947.
It is estimated only 14,000 Americans owned television sets back then. You can be sure plenty more will be watching tonight.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza via Flickr.