By Stephanie Gaskell and Richard Sisk
The War Report

The plea to the nation from President Barack Obama was simple and direct – let’s try to be more like the U.S. military.

“They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together,” Obama said during his State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. last night. “Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example.”

Obama bookended his speech with clarion calls to a Congress gridlocked in election year politics to emulate the “all-for-one, one-for-all” teamwork of those in uniform, and especially the Navy SEALs who swept into Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden last May.

“These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations,” he said.

In his opening, Obama said that “for the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.”

The cameras often turned to focus on Adm. William McRaven, head of the Joint Special Operations Command, who was in the balcony as the special guest of First Lady Michelle Obama.

McRaven’s presence underlined Obama’s new strategy to pivot away from manpower-intensive, counter-insurgency campaigns and to depend more on special operations to combat terrorism as the era of blank checks for the Pentagon budget since 9/11 comes to an end.

There was a bit of good fortune for Obama that would not become public until the speech ended: a successful special ops mission was being completed in Somalia. An American and a Danish hostage were freed, all the kidnapers were killed, and the rescue teams returned safely. Before his speech, Obama greeted Defense Secretary, saying “great job” — presumably referring to the mission that was underway.

The speech came two days before Panetta was to give a preview of his plan to cut $487 billion from the Pentagon budget over the next five years, and the active duty military and vets, along with more than 700,000 civilian defense employes, watched anxiously for signs from Obama on where the axe will fall.

Funding for the Navy and Air Force is expected to increase, while the Army and the Marine Corps will bear the brunt of the cuts. Obama gave few hints in his speech, leaving it to Panetta to sketch the cuts on Thursday. The only specifics on the military in the address was Obama’s call to establish a Job Corps for vets to train returning troops for jobs as cops, firefighters and National Parks officers.

Veterans groups generally withheld a verdict on the address for its lack of specifics about the military. “It was a good speech,” said a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, but their membership was awaiting Panetta’s budget proposals.

Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the returning troops “stand ready to lead our country to future prosperity here at home. The President, Congress and the entire country must make the investment to help them reach their potential as America’s next doctors, politicians, CEOs and teachers.”

Veterans groups have been most concerned about unemployment and suicides, potential cuts to the military’s TriCare health benefits, and forced retirements and early outs for active duty troops.

In his address, Obama said vets returning from Afghanistan and Iraq could help turn the nation around.

“We can do this. I know we can, because we’ve done it before,” Obama said. “At the end of World War II, when another generation of heroes returned home from combat, they built the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known.”

Obama closed with the soaring oratory that even his staunchest detractors concede is his strongest suit as a politician. He went back to the SEAL team that went after Bin Laden, and the flag they carried and gave to him:

“One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn’t matter.  Just like it didn’t matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates — a man who was George Bush’s defense secretary; and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for President.

“All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves. One of the young men involved in the raid later told me that he didn’t deserve credit for the mission. It only succeeded, he said, because every single member of that unit did their job — the pilot who landed the helicopter that spun out of control; the translator who kept others from entering the compound; the troops who separated the women and children from the fight; the SEALs who charged up the stairs. More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other — because you can’t charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know that there’s someone behind you, watching your back,” the president said.

“So it is with America. Each time I look at that flag, I’m reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built it together. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard.”

[Official White House photo by Chuck Kennedy.]