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President Barack Obama reacts to CODEPINK founder Medea Benjamin as she shouts at him from the back of the auditorium during his speech about national security, Thursday, May 23, 2013, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON (AP) - A day after laying out his counterterrorism vision, President Barack Obama is addressing future military leaders who could help carry it out in a speech to U.S. Naval Academy graduates.

It's a tradition for presidents to speak at the commissioning ceremony for the academy in Annapolis, Md., about 30 miles from the White House. The academy says 16 presidents have addressed graduates and Obama is the sixth president to do so twice. His first address there was four years ago.

Obama spoke earlier this month to graduates at Ohio State University and Morehouse College, an all-male, historically black school in Atlanta.

On Thursday at the National Defense University, Obama defended his controversial drone strikes program and renewed his push to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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    Steve wrote...
    Gun Control is a losing battle
    December 31, 2012 8:43 am
    for the Left. People easily grasp that gun bans don't make a dent in guns owned by the bad guys and that the better path is to crack down on the criminals, not the guns. Criminals will always make the extra effort to get illegal guns. That is made clear in cities such as Chicago and DC.
  • Abuse
    Steve wrote...
    What we've learned from the Gun Control
    December 31, 2012 8:46 am
    debate is simply this. Huge amount of the gun control debate is driven by liberals and journalists with little or no personal experience with guns, and therefore no concept of how to draw the distinctions at issue.
  • Abuse
    Steve wrote...
    Pieces taken from the 1994 gun ban
    December 31, 2012 8:48 am
    Remember this first, all guns can be used to assault someone, even a muzzle loading black powder rifle. 1. A rifle could cease being an assault weapon if you sawed off the flash suppressor. It could become an assault weapon if you added a bayonet. 2. A 49 ounce handgun could be legal under this law while an identical version that was one ounce heavier could be outlawed. Just some of the stupidity found in the assault weapons ban under Clinton.
  • Abuse
    Steve wrote...
    Mind boggling views of the Left
    December 31, 2012 8:53 am
    Just read a story recently where a "Constitutional Law" Professor at Georgetown made this comment. "...as the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken. But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions." Those evil white men.
  • Abuse
    Michoacan wrote...
    Gun nuts tell us that there is nothing to be
    December 31, 2012 8:57 am
    done about psycho killers using assault style weapons with high capacity magazines to slaughter classrooms full of kindergarteners. Gun nuts expect sane society to join them in shrugging their shoulders at the sight of stories of tiny bodies torn apart by .223 slugs. This, gun nuts tell us, is the awful price for gun nut freedom. Gun nuts would feel the same way if it had been their children who were the victims. Yikes!
  • Abuse
    2cents wrote...
    Obama proudly announces . . .
    January 5, 2013 12:11 pm
    he wont compromise on his determination to raise the debt ceiling. Yet, if Congress does its job and stifles that attempt to bury the US, he will declare that the GOP is evil for not compromising with HIM. And his brilliant followers will strongly argree.
  • Abuse
    SurpriseMe wrote...
    Obama failed math
    January 5, 2013 6:02 pm
    Obama sure likes to spend other peoples money. History and what is currently happening in europe says we need to lower our spending, reduce the size of government. Greece is in big money trouble because their government got to big. They cant pay the retiring employes their benefits.
  • Abuse
    wrote...
    This vacation
    January 7, 2013 9:25 am
    cost was in the millions. Does O get 1099'd for these actual costs? Does the POTUS job description have the huge expensive vacations spelled out?
  • Abuse
    wrote...
    Check it out on Google ~
    January 7, 2013 10:47 am
    Georgie Boy (W) spent 977 days on vacation and/or retreats during his 8 years (that's one third of his time in office) Obama has a ways to go to catch up. But in today's electronic age remember that the office and staff go along - I recall during Nixon's time they called Clemente, CA, the western white house. Don't have to be sitting in the White House to conduct business.
  • Abuse
    Steve wrote...
    Gun history with Obama
    January 19, 2013 8:47 am
    In the 90's, Obama often made comments about being anti gun. He thought people shouldn't be armed and voted in favor of such laws. His first four years as president and he did nothing about it. He waited until after this election cycle to force his ideology because he knows its unpopular.