How Obama Squandered the Surge Obama sees an American military defeat as one more step in the American decline he wants. This is the guy who refused to wear an American flag on his lapel during the campaign, a superficial symbol I know, but he was showing his true colors. "I'm always worried about using the word "victory," because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur." - President Obama, ABC News interview, July 23, 2009. It is telling that when Barack Obama pictures "victory" he doesn't see in his head that famous photo of the U.S. Sailor kissing the pretty girl in Times Square on Victory Day. Instead, what is immediately conjured up in Obama's mind is the bedraggled figure of a beaten Japanese Emperor groveling at the feet of U.S. military might. Obama's sympathy seems to be with the Emperor that governed a nation that tried to viciously take over the entire Pacific Rim and enslave many millions of Asian peoples. It is hard to escape the feeling that Obama's first thought when the word "victory" is broached is of our enemy, his sympathies with them, not us.