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The Speech (Updated)

Oh, my.

Where to begin, on an examination of Obama’s speech to the Middle East [1]? I’m certainly not going to hit you with all 6000 words.  I can’t even jump on everything in the speech that should be jumped on. An intensive response would take a week to formulate and still not cover ten percent of the serious problems within it.  I guess we could take some of the more troublesome lines and pick them apart. Parsing this stuff is the only way to get through these handcrafted bamboozle sessions, anyway. Let’s start with the concept of American Exceptionalism:

 Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail

So does the President of the United States, a position often referred to as ‘the leader of the free world’, view his role.  Usually, this kind of comment is a polite nothing, uttered to make the third world leaders feel good in a mode of Koom-By-Yah. Thing is, Obama actually believes this rot…. that America, for all it is, shouldn’t be in the leadership role in the world We’re just another banana republic. Perhaps now we have a clue as to why every action he has thus far taken while in office has seemed to have making us just another banana republic as a goal.

‘Iran should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities’…

Oh, really? And who does Mr. Obama suppose to have the power to make that determination?  He’s just told us that no nation should be held above another.  Are we really going to depend on the UN to make such choices? The efficacy of that plan, given the overlong history of the UN is questionable at least. And the long history of statements and actions from Iran should leave no doubt as to the stupidity of allowing them to have nuclear capability under any conditions. This classic from the great Cox and Forkum says it well.

cfnuclearends-x [2]

Let’s take another:

As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam

First off Obama is no student of history unless we’re talking about the stuff he’s made up. Let’s examine the debt of which Mr. Obama speaks.

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

chuchillbust [3]Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science – the science against which it had vainly struggled – the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome. -Sir Winston Churchill, 1899

I guess now we have a fair clue why Obama’s first action as President was to remove the bust of Churchill from the Oval Office, hmmm?

I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq. So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.

This statement would seem at odds with an Icon of the Democrat party, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who I’m starting to wonder if our student of history even remembers, much less the question of putting any stock in the wisdom of his words:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge—and more.

kennedy [4]To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom—and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.

…*…

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

It is clear that Mr. Obama’s concepts of right and wrong are vastly different from those of Mr. Kennedy.  One might even say that we as a nation knew Jack Kennedy, and Obama is no Jack Kennedy. It is also startlingly clear that Mr Obama, as I’ve said is no student of history… even the history of his own party. One wonders if the portrait of JFK still hangs in the White House, or if it was removed on the same truck that ushered the bust of Sir Winston to the warehouse.

 

I could go on like this, parsing this thing, but there is so much that is fundamentally wrong with it from an American policy point of view that I’d be here  for weeks. I can’t honestly say I’m disappointed with it, It’s almost exactly the kind of hind-lick maneuver I expected from Obama.  I am annoyed, however, that we’ll be dealing with it’s anti-American consequences for the next generation or three at best.

 

There’s more reaction at Memeorandum [5], of course.

 

Addendum:  A vid of the speech:

Addendum 2: Eric

I want to call your attention to an excellent point made by Marc Thiessen at The Corner: [6]

He said he is committed to helping Iraqis stand on their own. But he failed to mention that they have that opportunity because of the blood spilled by American troops who sacrificed to give them their freedom. He failed to mention that from Iraq and Afghanistan, to Bosnia, Kosovo, and Kuwait, over the past two decades our military has done more to free Muslims from oppression than any power in history. In fact, there was not one word of praise for our troops and what they have done for the people of the Middle East in the entire address.

To the contrary, he threw the men and women of our military and our intelligence community under the bus when he declared, in front of a Muslim audience, that the attacks of 9/11 “led us to act contrary to our ideals.” On foreign soil, he accused our intelligence professionals who stopped the next 9/11 of committing torture — validating years of al-Qaeda propaganda. He talked about closing GTMO without any defense of the good men and women who run it — even though his own attorney general, Eric Holder, has admitted it was a model prison. If he was going to discuss these topics in the Middle East, he at least owed it to our troops and intelligence professionals to say what dozens of investigations have proven: that there was no systematic abuse of detainees at GTMO or anywhere else. Instead, Obama echoed al-Qaeda’s calumnies against them — and did so in a foreign land. This is unprecedented. It is shameful. And they deserve better.

Indeed. And so do we all, Marc… and so do we all.