From the category archives:

Foreign Policy

Iran’s Leader Threatens ‘Punch’ That Will Stun the West

February 8, 2010

ayatollah ali khamenei 150x150 Irans Leader Threatens Punch That Will Stun the WestThe Iranian government continues the escalate its actions and rhetoric. After announcing that it will enrich uranium 20 percent, Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei now threatens unspecified action on Feb. 11, the 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution.

“The Iranian nation, with its unity and God’s grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned,” Khamenei, who is also Iran’s commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

The opposition movement that gained strength after a fraudulent presidential election last June has called for large demonstrations on Thursday.

The race between the regimes quest for nuclear weapons and the opposition movements ability to topple the regime continues.

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Thomas Sowell, a Clear Voice in Opposition to Today’s Reign of Obama’s ‘Experts’

January 10, 2010

Here is an interview with Thomas Sowell, one of the clearest voices on economics and other policy issues. Sowell discusses his new book Intellectuals and Society with Peter Robinson.

If you have not read Thomas Sowell before, you must listen to this interview. Sowell covers a wide range of topics including the Great Depression, our current economic crisis, the fallacy of appeasing dictators, global warming and how left wing ideas disseminated in our schools and other institutions.

His main point is that intellectuals believe that decisions on public policy should not be made by voters but rather by so-called “experts” when in fact knowledge on how to address problems is widely disseminated and requires decisions by the 99 percent of people who are not professional intellectuals.

Sowell will turn eighty this year. He looks great and we can only hope we have this American treasure around for a long time to speak with clarity about the problems America faces and the misguided policies of Obama, the Democrats and their intellectual allies at our universities.

Here is the interview in five segments. The comments before each segment only provide a few highlights. You will get much more out of listening to each segment and the whole interview.

Segment 1: “The Species of the Intellectuals” – Thomas Sowell on Obama’s call on Republicans to trust experts. “[laughing]…Talking to experts does make a difference. Many of the great disasters of our time have been committed by experts.”

Segment 2: “Intellectuals and Economics” – Sowell discusses among other things how government policy prevented the recovery after the 1929 stock market crash and created the Great Depression.

Segment 3: “Intellectuals and Vision” - The intellectuals’ vision that decisions should be transferred from the people to experts. “You can become President of the United States without contact to economic reality.” Comments on Obama’s decision to give al-Qaeda terrorists a jury trial when there is no basis for such a “right”.

Segment 4: “Intellectuals and War” Gun control: “In Britain they have made burglary a safe occupation.” The role of schools in disseminating the liberal agenda. The fallacy that an arms race will lead to war. The heroic roles of President Truman in containing the Soviet Union and President Reagan in ending the Cold War.

Segment 5: “Intellectuals and the Rest of Us” – Intellectuals sell their services by making alarming predictions like global warming. The revelations of Climategate.

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Will the Iranian Resistance Succeed Before Iran Acquires Nuclear Weapons?

January 8, 2010

Iran election 2 300x204 Will the Iranian Resistance Succeed Before Iran Acquires Nuclear Weapons?ayatollah ali khamenei 150x150 Will the Iranian Resistance Succeed Before Iran Acquires Nuclear Weapons?The Iranian people are again rising up against the tyrannical regime that has ruled them for the past 30 years. This is happening at a time when Iran may be on the verge becoming a nuclear power posing a threat to its immediate neighbors and the world.

Protests increased after the death of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri on December 19th and have continued on the Shiite religious holiday Ashura and beyond.

Montazeri once was the designated successor to Khomeini, the founder of the current regime. He was demoted just months before Khomeini’s death in 1989 after criticizing the repressive practices of the regime and advocating a more open society.

Six months ago, after the fraudulent election in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of a second term by the Iranian Supreme Ruler Ayatollah Khamenei, demonstrations by the opposition Green Movement erupted throughout the country. While they were sparsely covered by Western media, Iranian students were able to share information, pictures and video with the world through Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

The demonstrations were followed by brutal repression from government forces. Here is a video on the rise of the Green Movement and the events of last year:

After months of sitting on the fence, the Obama administration is showing more interest in supporting the resistance movement. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Since the opposition movement’s demonstrations recently peaked after the death of reformist Islamic cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a number of Iran scholars in the U.S. said they have been contacted by senior administration officials eager to understand if the Iranian unrest suggested a greater threat to Tehran’s government than originally understood.

“The tone has changed in the conversation,” said one scholar who discussed Iran with senior U.S. officials. “There’s realization now that this unrest really matters.”

Better late than never.

The Obama administration’s new interest in the Green Movement may also be motivated by the realization that Obama’s overtures to the Iranian government have been rebuffed and mocked by the regime. The threat of sanctions is not credible after the Europeans and both Bush and Obama have been threatening sanctions for years and the Iranian rulers continue working on getting a nuclear bomb.

It is clear that Obama will not initiate military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel may try to strike, but it will be difficult for Israel to orchestrate the successful destruction of multiple nuclear facilities.

Revolutions are hard to predict, but Iran and the world would be better off if the irrational, terrorist-sponsoring regime is replaced before it acquires nuclear weapons. Iran would still likely become a nuclear power, but nuclear weapons in the hands of a democratic government with friendly relations with the West and with its neighbors would be less of threat than nuclear bombs in the hands of rulers who are openly calling for the destruction of Israel and Western democracies.

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2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and Security

January 1, 2010

While none of us can predict the future and unexpected events are bound to develop, the following stories will be significant in their impact on American freedom, strength and security during 2010. Please continue reading this blog during 2010 if any of these topics are of interest to you.

1. Iran: Nuclear Weapons, Resistance to the Regime and Revolution?

mousavi--124507979745817300Iran will be a pivotal place in the struggle between Jihadism and free societies. During 2010, Iran will likely become a nuclear power led by a president with the declared goal of destroying Israel. The Obama administration is unlikely to use force to stop this dangerous development. Israel may act, but it is not clear whether it will be able to neutralize the threat of a nuclear Iran by itself.

Since the fraudulent presidential election last June, the internal, democratic Iranian resistance has grown despite the regime’s brutal attempt to silence protests through intimidation, jailing of dissidents and outright murder. The opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mosavi, a member of the regime during the 1980s has become a more vocal opponent of the regime after the election and could become Iran’s equivalent to Russia’s Boris Yeltsin who started as a communist and ended up leading the breakup of the Soviet Union and its replacement with 15 nations including a Russia that attempted to achieve democracy.

ayatollah hossein ali montazeri 150x150 2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and SecurityThe resistance movement has stepped up protests in the last weeks of December after the death Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, once the designated successor to Khomeini, the founder of the Iranian Islamic Republic and, more recently, the leading religious leader opposing the regime. Earlier this week, the Iranian dictators killed a nephew of Mousavi, further escalating tension.

Revolutions are hard to predict, but there is at least the possibility that the Iranian resistance could overthrow the 30-year-old repressive regime before fanatics who believe in provoking an apocalypse to hasten the arrival of the “hidden Iman” gain nuclear weapons.

2. Economic Recovery: Long-Term Prospects, Fear of Inflation and the Impact of Unsustainable Government Debt

obama 150x150 2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and Securityr228531 909709 150x150 2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and SecurityThe US economy appears to be headed toward a recovery despite unprecedented, heavy-handed control exerted by the Obama administration over more and more areas of economic activity.

Can the recovery be sustained despite new and continued threats of more government control and record taxation and spending? Will inflation become a serious issue given the lose money policies of the Federal Reserve under Time’s Person of the Year Ben Bernanke?

Will the private economy again be able to generate jobs for the tens of millions of Americans that lost their jobs during the recession?

The short-term news may be positive, but dark clouds hang over this recovery.

3. Security and Terrorism: Will Washington Get Serious Again Before It Is Too Late?

war on terror poster 224x300 2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and SecurityThe Jihadist terrorist attacks at Ft. Hood and on a plane landing in Detroit on Christmas Day have shown how utterly clueless Obama and his advisors are. They treat these acts as isolated criminal incidents despite clear evidence that they are part of a continued international Jihadist movement.

Will they see the light and let us move on from recognizing the obvious to seriously thinking about how a free society can survive given that technology today can give a handful of fanatics unprecedented power to cause mass murder and wholesale destruction?

In addition to “traditional” attacks using guns and explosives, chemical, biological and nuclear threats remain real and become more likely each year. Even more frightening scenarios that could be perpetrated by rogue regimes with a few nuclear weapons include an electromagnetic pulse attack on the US.

4. Continued Growth in Opposition to Obamaism and the November 2010 Election

dc tea party sept 12 2009 mega 01 300x225 2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and SecurityThe Tea Party movement started early in 2009 in opposition to unprecedented spending in Washington and all the initiatives to control more of the American economy. The likely passage of Obamacare practically guarantees, that Democrats will sustain heavy losses in the November 2010 Congressional elections.

Will Republican leaders become more effective in explaining these issues and presenting the alternatives or will the Tea Party movement end up supporting third party candidates that will inevitably divide the opposition to Obama?

5. The Final Shape of Obamacare and Its Impact on Cost of and Access to Health Care

obamacare 235x300 2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and SecurityWhile it is hard to see how passage of some form of Obamacare can be avoided, Democrats are sharply divided on issues like the public option and taxpayer funding of abortions. The left wing of the party opposes current legislation that has provisions required to keep the support of more “moderate” Democrats. Will this coalition between Democratic factions hold and how bad will the final legislation be?

6. The Global War on Terror: Iraq, Afghanistan and New Fronts

us military collage zus6 300x258 2010 Stories That Will Impact American Freedom, Strength and SecurityThe US involvement in Iraq is winding down. Will the Iraqi government be able to avoid a return to the violence of a couple of years ago?

In Afghanistan, Obama is supporting a moderate surge in US forces. Will this be enough to drive back the Taliban and al-Qaeda or will they just hunker down until the withdrawal of US forces starting in 2011 that Obama has already announced?

Finally, the Christmas Day underwear bomber has started drawing attention to the fact that there are other centers of Jihadist terrorism like Yemen. Will there be an attack originating in Yemen or another center of Islamic fanatics that will force the administration to act?

7. Global Warming Alarmism After Climategate and Copenhagen

Al GoreThe changes for drastic imposition of new regulations controlling carbon-based energy has fizzled after the Climategate scandal and the failed Copenhagen summit.

France’s supreme court struck down a new law on carbon emission just this week.

The chances of major cap and tax legislation passing the Senate are practically nil.

Despite these positive developments, the left has invested heavily in the global warming hysteria as a new way to impose national and international controls on human freedom. Stories about impending doom due to supposedly man-made global warming won’t go away in 2010. Expect more fear-based emotional appeals and other attempts to revive the global warming movement.

Just based on what we know about these stories, 2010 is bound to be an interesting year.

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Report from the Future: Airplane Travel in 2012

December 28, 2009

It has been painful to watch the missteps of the Obama administration in the wake of the Christmas Day terrorist attempt to blow up a plane and the Transportation Safety Authority (TSA’s) reaching new heights of absurdity with the rules it imposed immediately after the failed attack. Rather than express anger at how our government is dealing with this attack, a little satire is in order. Let’s see where present trends could take us if they are taken to the extreme:

April 1, 2012

Today, the TSA announced that effective immediately civilian airline passengers will need to be held in new TSA waiting rooms without receiving liquids for six hours prior to departure. They will also receive a laxative at the beginning of their stay in the TSA waiting room.

The new rules are imposed in reaction to two passengers who tried to blow up flights coming to the US from Europe on March 28 and March 30. In one case, a 20-year-old passenger from Sudan tried to blow up a plane with explosives he had ingested prior to the flight. In a second case, a South Asian (i.e. Pakistani) passenger from London incinerated himself after drinking liquids that contained high concentrations of a new powerful explosive prior to boarding a flight.

napolitano004 300x230 Report from the Future: Airplane Travel in 2012“These are acts of lone individuals with no affiliation to Al-Qaeda or any other known organizations” declared Secretary of Homeland Security John Kerry who was appointed by President Obama in 2010 after his predecessor Janet Napolitano was forced out over handling of the investigation into the failed “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who tried to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009.

The Christmas Day 2009 attack resulted in the TSA requirement implemented in 2010 that airline passengers travel without wearing underwear. Other recent restrictions imposed by the TSA to protect passengers include painting all windows black to make it impossible for passengers to see where they are, prohibitions on pilots to tell passenger any information on their location (i.e. no more “on the right you can see the Grand Canyon”), the elimination of pillows and blankets from airplanes and the elimination of all carry-on luggage.

These restrictions are added to previous measures requiring passengers to take off shoes during screening (today, of course, we are requiring all civilian airline passengers to travel barefoot) and prohibiting passengers from bringing liquids on board.

Secretary Kerry persisted in calling the recent attack “isolated incidents” despite Al-Qaeda claiming credit for the “full bladder” bomber and the warnings that a senior Sudanese banker gave to the American embassy stating that his son “may have been radicalized” and has traveled to Yemen to train in terrorist camps.

“The TSA is prohibited from profiling passengers based on their national origin, gender, age or religion,” said Secretary Kerry to address fears that young Muslim men from Middle Eastern countries or other regions could face extra scrutiny due to similarities to perpetrators of recent attempts to bring down airplanes.

After closing the terrorist holding facility in Guantanamo Bay in 2011, all suspected “terrorists” are held in American prisons pending criminal trials. Most of them are held with a few remaining Guantanamo detainees in a prison outside Chicago. If the evidence against these suspects is not sufficient for a conviction, the suspects are released on a special visa in the United States. “It would be inhumane to deport the suspects to their countries of origin since they may be subjected to treatment in their home countries inconsistent with American standards.” said Secretary Kerry.

Airlines stocks dropped to new record lows in reaction to the new TSA waiting rooms and industry analysts predict bankruptcy for the three remaining private US airlines due to the continued steep drop in airline travel. The Obama administration has announced its intention to pass legislation to save these airlines by the federal government taking ownership stakes. The program is known as ARP (Airline Rescue Program). In addition, President Obama today announced the “Fly with Uncle Sam” stimulus program that will give Americans a free airline ticket paid for with US tax dollars for every ticket they buy.

In breaking news, Al-Wahiri a new spokesman for Al-Qaeda, has announced that it will limit its attacks if the United States agrees to the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and all other basis in the Middle East and if the US recognizes an expanded Palestinian state taking over one third of Israel. Al-Wahiri did not provide any specifics on how Al-Qaeda will restrain its attacks.

White Hose Press Secretary Dilbert (who succeeded Robert Gibbs in 2011) has said that the Obama administration is studying the proposal.

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Copenhagen Farce: Obama Loses His Cool Amidst An Anti-American Summit

December 18, 2009

15504205 Copenhagen Farce: Obama Loses His Cool Amidst An Anti American Summit“…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” – William Shakespeare

The Global Warming Summit in Copenhagen ended with a day in which Chinese Prime Minister Wen snubbed President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama then crashed a meeting between the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa. He tried to play the savior of the planet by announcing a non-binding agreement and left before a final vote because of – I am not making this up – an approaching record snow storm in Washington. Oh, and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez announced that Barack Obama is the devil, an honor he previously bestowed on George W. Bush.

No comedian could make this up. The only thing missing was Al Gore reciting poetry somewhere in the background.

The British paper The Independent reports:

“At an emergency meeting convened at the Bella Center this morning, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown assembled 26 heads of state in an attempt to revive a deal. But China’s Premier Wen Jiabao did not attend and was replaced by vice foreign minister He Yafei.

This afternoon, the US president and his secretary of state Hillary Clinton called another meeting with China, but were snubbed again when only three low-level Chinese delegates arrived.

According to a high level source, the US president clearly regarded Premier Wen’s absence as a major diplomatic insult, and snapped: ‘It would be nice to negotiate with somebody who can make political decisions.’”

ABC’s Jack Tapper continues the story:

Officials say President Obama was frustrated. The conference was in complete chaos.

At about 730 pm Denmark time – the president was supposed to have left an hour before — he learned that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, with whom he was supposed to meet, was meeting with the leaders of India, South Africa, and Brazil – the main players holding up any sort of political agreement.

The president heard about this and said he wanted to go to the meeting.

“Four against one,” an official said to the president.

“No problem,” he replied.

A senior administration official says the president “barged into the meeting,” where he joined China’s Wen, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma.

The reporters’ pool note from that time said that President Obama walked into the room and called out from the door, “Mr. Premier, are you ready to see me? Are you ready?”

They talked for roughly 45 minutes and emerged with a non-binding political accord.

Hugo Chavez seems to have a problem with smelling sulfur when he speaks at the same location as a US President. Here his Chavez in Copenhagen today:

Three years ago at the United Nations Chavez had similar words for President George W. Bush:

When will President Obama realize that, as President of the United States, he too is the target of Anti-American hatred? Going around the world apologizing for the “evils” committed by the United States prior to January 20, 2009 just makes him and America look weak and emboldens America’s enemies.

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Great Wartime Leadership: ‘We Shall Never Surrender’

December 1, 2009

Winston Churchill’s famous speech rallying Great Britain to fight the Nazis is an interesting contrast to President Obama’s speech announcing a new strategy to fight another evil ideology that advocates killing those who don’t believe in the Taliban’s radical brand of Islam, support for al-Qaeda’s terrorism, implementing worse than Medieval laws, preventing girls from going to school and forcing women to have their faces fully veiled when in public.

I have covered the good as well as the bad of Obama’s speech here, but even if we recognize the good parts we shouldn’t forget how great defenders of Western Civilization against barbarian ideologies have spoken in the past.

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

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The Good and Bad of Obama’s Speech on Afghanistan

December 1, 2009

After three months of indecision, President Obama is giving General McChrystal 30,000 of the 40,000 troops he requested to fight an anti-insurgency campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. He said that “the common security of the world is at stake” and in the very next sentence announced that we would start withdrawing from Afghanistan in July, 2011.

In World War 2, did President Roosevelt announce that we would fight Japan and Nazi Germany, but that by (fill in a date here) we would start withdrawing? Has any successful wartime leader ever announced a date of withdrawal at the same time as he is announcing an increased commitment to fight the enemy?

Obama couldn’t get himself to use the word “victory” in describing our goals in Afghanistan and he told our enemies that if they hang on, we will eventually leave. Not the best way to present our new strategy, but it could have been a lot worse.

Obama’s left-wing base is vehemently opposed to today’s decision. Obama will need Republican support in Congress to get funding for the new counter-insurgency strategy.

Andrew Ferguson tries to look for the good in Obama’s speech in the Weekly Standard’s blog:

Almost all presidential speeches are too long, and President Obama could have shaved 60 percent from his address tonight, since he had approximately 15 minutes of content stretched over 35 minutes of talking. The excess came in platitudes about the economy, his own irenic intentions, and much else. And no doubt many of us will point out how he dwelled too much on ending the war and not enough on winning it.

But his blah-blah platitudes were important strategically — maybe essential, if his policy is to succeed. Obama’s critics to his right should remember the president’s critics to his left. The poor gentle souls must be gobsmacked. Obama is the first Democratic president in forty years to call for a significant deployment of American troops in the national security interest of his country. This is very big news. His predecessor, President Clinton, could give a stirring address dispatching bombers over Bosnia and be confident of the support of his fellow Democrats, because the show of power was purely humanitarian and had nothing to do with keeping us safe from our enemies. With great courage, Obama is trying something that hasn’t been tried within the living memory of most of the members of his party. He may even recall the era when liberal Democratic presidents — Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson — could lead a fight because it was in the interest of the country to fight.

This is a historical moment, and one we should be grateful for. It’s worth an extra twenty minutes of presidential gassing off. It’s even worth a lot of guff about beginning to pull the troops out by a date certain, no matter what. (I’ll believe it when I see it.) If this is what he needs to mollify his political supporters, let him talk and talk and talk.

We can only hope that President Obama will follow through on his announced strategy and, as he said in speech, will take “into account conditions on the ground” when July 2011 arrives.

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Election in Honduras: Will Freedom Prevail?

November 28, 2009

honduras 300x205 Election in Honduras: Will Freedom Prevail?On Sunday, Nov. 29 Honduras will be electing a new president. Why should you care? Well, in June the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court legally removed Manuel Zelaya from office when he attempted to hold a referendum to allow him to run for another term as president. Honduras, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has faced sanctions and criticism for standing up for democracy and against the socialist/communist wave that has swept across other Latin American countries.

From 1963 to 1981 Honduras was run by military dictators and, when it returned to democracy, Hondurans wanted to make sure that it would not return to an authoritarian government. The Honduran constitution limits a president to one term and prohibits a sitting president from taking action to extend his rule. Zelaya, who is an ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, violated the constitution when trying to hold a referendum to allow him to run for a second term and Honduras’ legislator and Supreme Court stopped him and replaced him with Roberto Micheletti, who, as President of the Honduran Congress, was next in line for the presidency. Micheletti is a member of Zelaya’s party and is not running in Sunday’s election.

This all seems very straightforward and the government and people of Honduras should be applauded for standing up to a president who overstepped his constitutional authority.

Unfortunately for Honduras, this is not how the United States and most Latin American countries viewed the removal of Zelaya. It is not surprising that Zelaya’s ally Hugo Chavez, who printed and shipped the ballots for the referendum, and Cuban dictator Raul Castro would support Zelaya. It could also be expected that Chavez’ puppets and allies in Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador would support Zelaya.

Journalists around the world promptly portrait Zelaya’s removal as a “military coup” and other Latin American countries bought into this storyline. The Obama administration also decided to side with Zelaya for four month until they backed out of being on the side of Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro.

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and suffered from sanctions for the past few months for standing up to the socialist/communist forces that Hugo Chavez has unleashed across the region. Hondurans hope that Sunday’s election will put an end to the difficulties they have experienced. Hopefully, the Obama administration will support Honduras and work with democratic Latin American governments to re-establish normal relations and trade with Honduras.

The Wall Street Journal has covered this story well. Here is an article written on the eve of the election.

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Barack Obama: Why Does He Hate Us?

November 15, 2009

Paul Mirengoff wrote a must-read commentary on President Obama’s Anti-Americanism.

On the morning after the deadliest instance of Islamist terrorism in the United States since 9/11, President Obama warned the American public not to “jump to conclusions” about the motives that impelled Nidal Hasan’s rampage of mass murder at Fort Hood.

By the time Obama issued this warning, it had already been reported that Hasan yelled “Allahu akbar” before he opened fire. This assertion of the supremacy of Allah is invoked by Islamic terrorists worldwide before they kill.

It was also known that Hasan’s fellow participants in an Army program on public health had complained to military authorities about Hasan’s anti-American propaganda.Hasan had made a presentation that justified suicide bombing and argued that the war on terror is a war against Islam.

Yet no conclusions were warranted, as far as Obama was concerned.”We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing,” our “philosopher in chief” intoned.

Obama has not always been cautious about jumping to conclusions.When a white police officer in Cambridge, Mass., arrested an African-American Harvard professor, the president was quick to proclaim that the officer had “acted stupidly.”Obama was soon forced to back away from that statement, which was based on ignorance of the facts.

There is no underlying inconsistency between these seemingly divergent responses. Both are founded on the same antipathy Obama harbors toward America.

Obama prematurely concluded that the professor’s arrest was improper because this conclusion comported with his view that American law enforcement officers habitually harass black Americans. In Hasan’s case, it was imperative to resist the obvious connection between Islamism and the killings because, in Obama’s view, Americans habitually are on the verge of persecuting Muslims.

As the president’s wife once put it, America is “just downright mean.”

….

In the area of foreign and national security policy, however, Obama can operate largely unchecked. And a weak, guilt-ridden policy toward our foreign adversaries is almost certain to produce grave consequences.

To some extent, we have seen this act before. The damage of just four years of Jimmy Carter’s America-effacing presidency included Soviet expansion, communist inroads in Latin America, the replacement of a friendly government with a virulently anti-American theocracy in Iran, and a prolonged hostage crisis that came to symbolize the new American impotence.

But although Carter was ambivalent about America, his efforts to promote democracy abroad showed that he thought we had something to offer to world.Obama will not grant America even that.

Emulating Carter the ex-president, rather than President Carter, Obama has shown essentially no interest in human rights or democracy promotion.His belated support of the Iranian protesters following this summer’s election could hardly have been more lukewarm.

It seems that, in Obama’s view, all we have to offer the world is our non-interference in its affairs, except perhaps when it comes to bullying our allies.

Read the whole article here.

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