Barack Obama actually said...
Chuck knows that war is not an abstraction. He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that's something we only do when it's absolutely necessary. My frame of reference, he has said, is geared towards the guy at the bottom who's doing the fighting and the dying.
Context
Obama defends Chuck Hagel's understanding of the realities of war as he nominates him for Secretary of Defense.
01/06/2013