President Barack Obama is being praised for choosing an Arabic TV network for his first formal television interview on the Dubai-based, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel. I think we can all appreciate the thinking behind such bold outreach, given that the media at home has chortled to the world that our new guy’s unusual background, in sort of Zen-fashion, has befuddled the radical Islamic movement.
The subtext of our satisfaction has been that Obama—African-American, son of a Muslim father, erstwhile resident of Muslim Indonesia, with Hussein as his middle name—makes it far harder for the Arab Islamic world to typecast America unfairly as the Great Satan than would be true in the case of an evangelical, Texas-drawling, hard-core conservative Chief Executive like good ‘ole boy George Bush.
True enough, no doubt.
But triangulation is a touchy art and it takes the genius of a Dick Morris cum soulless Bill Clinton to pull off such disingenuousness. In less experienced hands it can be explosive and turn on its user. And Obama will soon learn the dangerous game he is playing. Consider:
1) When abroad it is not wise to criticize your own country and praise the antithetical world view of another—especially if yours is a democratic republic and the alternative is a theocratic monarchy that has a less than liberal record on human rights, treatment of women and homosexuals, and tolerance for religious plurality.
But here’s what Obama said:
“… All too often the United States starts by dictating…in the past on some of these issues…and we don’t always know all the factors that are involved. So let’s listen…Well, here’s what I think is important. Look at the proposal that was put forth by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia…I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal, but it took great courage…to put forward something that is as significant as that. I think that there are ideas across the region of how we might pursue peace.”
The end, if unintended, result is that the Saudi King comes across as courageous, while the U.S. President and State Department (e.g., “the United States”) are portrayed as dictatorial-like (“dictating”) in the region.
2) An unspoken rule of American statesmanship is not to be overtly partisan abroad. And in Obama’s case it is high time to arrest the campaign mode, cease the implied “Bush did it” (which ipso facto has a short shelf life), and begin dealing with the world as it is, rather than the world you feel was unfairly presented to you by someone more blameworthy in the past. But again consider:
“But if you look at the track record, as you say, America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that. And that I think is going to be an important task… And so what we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there’s a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs… but I think that what you’ll see is somebody who is listening, who is respectful, and who is trying to promote the interests not just of the United States, but also ordinary people who right now are suffering from poverty and a lack of opportunity. I want to make sure that I’m speaking to them, as well.”
Perhaps. But once again, the impression comes across as ‘past America bad /present and future America good.’ (Even the senior George Bush learned that lesson at home with his serial “kinder, gentler nation” [e.g., kinder than what?]). And nothing is offered here (other than our lack of a colonial past) about the actual impressive record: amazing American good will in saving Kuwait, objecting to the Kuwaiti deportations of thousands of Palestinians, speaking out against Russia on behalf of the Chechens, trying to save the Somalis, bombing a Christian European Serbia to save the Kosovar and Bosnian Muslims, helping the Afghans against the Soviets, removing the Taliban and Saddam Hussein and trying to invest a $1 trillion in fostering democracy in their places, billions in disease relief for black (and often Muslim) Africa, timely help to the Muslim victims of the tsunami, and liberal immigration laws that welcome in millions of Arabs and/or Muslims. I could go on but you get the picture left out that America, far better than China, Russia, or Europe, has been quite friendly to the Muslim world.
Instead the supposition is that somehow the culpability is largely ours—and therefore ours to rectify. In fact, the widespread hatred in the Islamic world, manifested, and sometime applauded, on September 11, was largely a result of the failures of indigenous autocracy—whether in the past Pan-Arabist, Baathist, theocratic and Islamic, Nasserite, or pro-Soviet statism.
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123 Comments
1. George Best:The word pussy comes to mind when listening to Obama. He does not want conflict because he does not want to hurt his image because he knows he will fail to handle conflict properly. A Gandhi wanna be cant be the President of the most powerful country on earth.
The only way to stop a bully is to kick the crap out of him, not talk to him. Talking to avoid a conflict, especially when the bully knows you can beat him only shows your weakness. Words, no matter how well crafted, dont hide the fact our leader is a coward.
What he did makes him look like a total loser at home and only inspires our enemies to attack because they dont see strength. Ultimately he is just trying to get himself the Nobel Peact Prize the first year in office and he is taking lessons from Gore, the biggest stooge in this country.
Jan 27, 2009 - 9:06 pm 2. Andy from San Jose:VDH, thank you for the outstanding summation of … the Carter years revisited?
Can it be that we as a country have forgotten the sheer idiocy in our attempts to appease others by denigrating the US? Has BHO, the professor, never read history? Does American exceptionalism play any role whatsoever in his world view?
I was quite willing to allow BHO time to settle in office, and to stifle my instinctual opinion of him and his Leftist past. Now, with this gibberish, I am very worried once again.
Carter II is upon us.
Andy
Jan 27, 2009 - 10:05 pm 3. Dave:When George W. Bush took office, the strategic situation was analgous to March or April 1941.
As Barack Obama takes office, the strategic situation is analgous to mid-1943.
Will Obama blow his advantages? Probably.
He projects a utopian vision. Something that can never be actually achieved.
And then aplogizes for our having accomplished what others have not even attempted.
Things are gonna get interesting.
Jan 27, 2009 - 10:59 pm 4. Charles Gordon:What if a fatwa calls him out for his apostasy?
Jan 28, 2009 - 12:39 am 5. Pajamas Media » Dancing Among Landmines—The Obama Al-Arabiya Interview:He can then “look at the track record” of Shari’a tradition and figure out how to “set aside some of the preconceptions” he has against America’s magnanimity abroad and freedom from submission here.
[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]
Jan 28, 2009 - 2:23 am 6. David Thomson:“Will Obama blow his advantages? Probably.”
Barack Obama is a shallow and poorly read man. And he is going to be too busy as president of the United States to get the time to get his act together. Far too many guilt tripped white Americans were obsessed to prove that “I’m not a racist.” Our current occupant of the White House is not even close to being ready for prime time. If he were a white man (instead of merely being half white)—his campaign for the nation’s top elected office would not have gotten off the ground floor. We are now stuck him for the next four years.
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:31 am 7. V.B. Bart:As always, a beautifully reasoned exposition by Prof. H., and one that examines President Obama’s ill-conceived interview from viewpoints no one else has been able to think their way to. Why are we not surprised?! Many thanks.
I just ran across an interesting companion piece this morning by Tony Blankley, who never misses a single thing (to my mind anyway – but then I most always agree with him…..). It’s titled, “Obama’s Collectivist Nationalism”, and can be found over at Townhall. Mr. Blankley takes a look at President Obama’s inaugural address in the light of various of his other writings, and draws conclusions that no one else amongst the swooning (even soi-disant conservative) MSM has seen. Mr. Blankley, VDH, and Jennifer Rubin are prominent amongst the happy few who see what’s up.
Jan 28, 2009 - 4:21 am 8. Barnett:Obama wants to move FAST, because he doesn’t want to chance not getting his “programs” through as planned, but then, he owns them and the failures and cannot refer to Bush.Further, never having initiated a bill except the Global Tax Plan, he has never had success in passing one, negotiating and compromising and holding hearings, etc.
Jan 28, 2009 - 4:46 am 9. John B:What wasn’t brought to the fore during the election is he did not grow up in America.He doesn’t know it. He doesn’t know that feeling in his bones.His Mother, obviously, was not a person to teach her son about appreciating America.Now, he is President.
He knows Rev.Wright, Ayres, Khalidi and other haters of of us all, especially,if one is White.He said he wants to unify the world.
Well,the fact that the first ‘leader’ he called is a terrorist,who holds a PHD(???)in Holocaust denying, is a liar, a thief, and supporter of eradicating Israel, whose troops trained by Dayton fought ALONGSIDE Hamas in this last operation and still presides over terrorists, but remains our terrorist peace partner,is an insult to all
who have been fighting and dying to protect the US and to all who love Freedom and want Western Civilization to survive.
He lived and traveled as a Muslim, as he said,and to say the Muslims have common dreams and hopes as we do displays an amazing degree of ignorance.I wonder, was he really giving a signal that his dream for America is Sharia Law, too? Or was he, like he was in Wright’s church for twenty years, oblivious to what was going on? Maybe, he IS
uneducable.
Obama must also contend with the diminished respect for the office of the Presidency, since the Democrats, et.al had so denigrated it in spewing their daily hate of Bush.His ‘cool’ demeanor that tools in his position, makes a mockery out of the dignity of “the office of the Presidency.” I mean, can
one imagine Thurgood Marshall “tooling” into
the Supreme Court?(By the way, what happened to the recall of the likes of Marshall and
and Ralph Bunch?)
The last aspect of this ‘interview’ is that it took place within the global time zone of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
To my knowledge no one in official DC even mentioned it.
For S.Rice and himself at this time sound conciliatory notes for Iran as its madman, again, calls for the destruction of the Jews and Israel, as an Egyptian Muslim cleric call for a second Holocaust and on a day The Telegraph runs the most stomach churning ‘ad’ for what the Palestinians are calling their Holocaust Museum, asking ,where is the Humanity, reveals how out of touch they all are.They have no business even trying to push a “Peace Plan” by the Saudis, or anyone else.In addition, Abu Mazen says Israel should be investigated for War Crimes, and he would stand by it .Abbas is our guy – not the Palestinians, not the Arabs in the West Bank, but the State Department’s in DC.
Hillary is the Saudi/Chinese rep in the Cabinet,
Mitchell is Dubai’s,S.Rice is pushing for Iran and the terrorists along with Obama,
General Jones and Samantha Powers want the US military to invade Israel, or at the very least, demilitarize Israel and install NATO troops-where ever.Soros wants the same, but,also, to strip the Jews of any influence in DC,
Blair wants his job, and Holbrooke will, probably, insist India gives up Kashmir and succumbs to the Pakistanis and the Muslims, infiltrating its provinces.
Then, of course, events and LIFE outside of even the ONE’s control will make their appearance.
As of right now, the DCCC is going after quieting Rush, as Newsbusters has posted, because no one should criticize Obama.He has many important things to accomplish.
It would seem to me that since we have quite a little military problem on our Southern border, that has nothing to do with the myth they bought into that all the world’s problems begin and end with Israel and the Arabs,Hillary and Gates and Jones should be in Mexico.Maybe, a map of North America would be helpful to Obama and others involved in Foreign Affairs, along with a puzzle of the US for Obama to learn there are only 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska—but not Israel.
bho doesn’t get it.
Most Americans are, to this very minute, unaware that they have been at war with Islam since before the year 1095. “What?”, you say,,, “America wasn’t even around in 1095.” I am, of course, referring to the 1st Crusade against Mohammedan tyranny after Islamic armies overran and sacked the Holy Land and put the Christians and Jews out of business in Jerusalem. That war lasted for about 6 years and the Christian armies were victorious, the Holy Land was restored to Christians, and the Crusaders went home.
What the Christians didn’t understand at that time, is the strength and depth of the grudge that would be held by the Muslims for that defeat. They’ve been preparing for, and planning for, and praying for this war for the past 10 centuries. America is a country founded on Christian ideals, by European Christians, as such, we are their natural enemy.
Without going into a long history lesson,,, Muslims have been cheating and killing Christians and Jews ever since. The only periods in history when they leave us alone is those times of war when we are busily killing each other.
They don’t like us very much. Maybe it’s time for us to start taking it seriously. Maybe it’s time for bho to spend a little more time reading history and less time polishing his halo.
Jan 28, 2009 - 5:06 am 10. noreen:Our president is a naive a** clown. He is shaping up to be our great national embarrassment. The international community must be laughing at him. How dare he take the typical liberal “blame America” tone for the problems we have with these killer terroist regimes. The only thing more dangerous than his domestic policies are his foreign ones. We are in deep doo doo
Jan 28, 2009 - 5:06 am 11. cfbleachers:What you are witnessing, my estimable friend VDH…is not isolated to President Obama, but to the whole of his Baby Boomer inspired base. The Sell-Out Generation.
This peculiar need to curry favor by bowing, scraping, shucking and jiving while offering up “apologias” for behavior of “those people” who are not as “nuanced as I who came before me”. Black culture has identified and looked down on this behavior in the relationship of a man (usually) trying to gain acceptance with white society by demeaning, debasing or “talking trash” about black people in general. Trying to curry favor with “the white man” by selling out or denigrating “your own people”. The term “Uncle Tom” came to represent the behavior pattern.
There is no term or phrase in white society that captures the behavior adequately. But it is a Baby Boomer special. A generation spoiled rotten, who have borrowed on easy credit everything for the privilege of mortgaging the future of this land or ours. They treat sacrifice as a barbarian notion that stands in the way of their entitlement. The “government” OWES them the whole enchilada.
Like a spoiled child turning to Depression Era parents and saying, “of course you pay for my college, my room and board, my meals, my car, my insurance, my health care…that’s what you’re SUPPOSED to do, as parents. Sacrifice for me, give me, buy me, bring me, take me.”
They then turn away, roll their eyes at their equally spoiled friends and begin bad mouthing the “old school” thinking of their very “out of touch” elders.
This is a generation that buys its credibility on easy terms as well. It has flirted with revolutionary leftism from its youth to its impending dotage. Bouyed by its success in undermining the Viet Nam effort to stem the tide of Soviet expansionism, elevated in its own eyes as moral keepers of the nation, spurred on by Watergate…this sell out generation bought a high on false accusations and leftist propaganda from which it never came down.
It took credit for every moral advancement while it shirked blame and responsibilities for its massive failures and missteps. For those…it blamed “others”.
We now pay the price daily for our indulgences of their White Uncle Tom’ism.
The world shares an image of America, branded and mass produced by the academia, Hollywood, entrenched media Trilogy of Slander created by the Sell Out Generation.
This generation blurs the lines between egalitarianism and moral relativism. The feminization of the male of the species and the concurrent masculinization of the female is another rather silly excess in the bow toward the absurd absolutes of egalitarianism.
Wimpy, bowing, scraping, apologizing males constantly put in their place by domineering, always right…don’t dare to cross me, “butchy” (and spell that anyway you would like) women. This is a generation that put the “ugh” in Ugly American.
The Sell Out Generation accepts blame by not only throwing the country under the bus, but by hopping in the driver’s seat and running over it with all four tires. And then backing over it again, just for good measure.
This generation has a “message” and they have built an altar to it. Inspired by leftist handlers, they are the “useful idiots” on steroids. They have bought their credibility on easy terms and they now payoff in outright lies, slanders, forged documents, photoshopped photos, staged events, half-truths, distortions and propaganda.
The “message” is sent daily, all around the world. And we, the countrymen they willingly sell out every day…pay the interest on their embezzlement of our country’s honor.
What you are witnessing, VDH…are not the flaws of a man…but of a generation the preceeded him. He is apologizing by blaming “others”. It is the Sell Out Generation way.
Jan 28, 2009 - 5:15 am 12. SAF:Talk is cheap. Perhaps he’ll pull a fast one on the middle east as he did on the US electorate. So we will see if he supports Israel in their war against Hamas, continues interdiction of weapons flow to Gaza and adds the 20K troops to Afghanistan like he says. And i guess there is also the premature pull out of US troops from Iraq.
But blaming America first is a democratic party tradition. If you recall two top elected democrats went to Baghdad to denounce Bush’s desire to remove Saddam. I say that if you argue against your president in the house chamber in Washington DC you are a patriot doing your duty of free opinion and debate but if you do it in Baghdad you are treasonous.
Jan 28, 2009 - 5:15 am 13. formwiz:Given all the comparisons of Bambi to Lincoln, I can imagine an interview with the main Richmond paper in March, 1860, if the comparisons were at all valid. Bambi thinks he can snow everyone the way he lays out in “Dreams of my Father”. Dr. Hanson proves that thinking people will see through him, too bad we don’t have enough of them right now.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:02 am 14. vb:Although he wants to be compared with Lincoln, FDR, and Kennedy, I am seeing a greater likeness to Jimmy Carter, Susan Sontag, the Dixie Chicks, and Michael Moore.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:13 am 15. David P:Obama’s obsession is not the American obsession, his attempts at appeasement will backfire weakening his support at home.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:23 am 16. TLM:cfbleachers:
As a member of the generation you despise, I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m not prone to self-loathing, but I gotta admit: facts is facts. During the election, Team Obama played us for the fools we are. If and when the Boomer Generation ever wakes up, they’ll have a bitter pill to swallow: history will not look kindly upon our ignorance and childish ways.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:23 am 17. AnninCA:Agree with all of your points, actually. Obama’s remarks suggested to me that he’s going to end up in an unwanted campaign in that region, complete with references to “You said this then….”
And he’ll end up with an expectation of delivery on concessions.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:37 am 18. ~Paules:So for the next four years America’s foreign policy will rely on good intentions. All hail our Therapist in Chief! World leaders must be stunned at the naivete. Can’t we all just get along? The Europeans complain when we are strong, but they’ll hate us more for our weakness when the chips start to fall. Carter II indeed.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:40 am 19. Jonesy55:“our lack of a colonial past”
I’ve often wondered about why so many American commentators seem to think this.
Did the US not have overseas imperial possessions in the Philipines, in Panama, and still does to this day in Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa, the Virgin Islands etc
Now these don’t add up to an empire as big as the UK or France but they are comparable with some of other European empires of the 19th and 20th century.
Also you’d have to take into account that for most of the 19th and early 20th centuries when European countries were busy collecting overseas colonies, the US was distracted by the task of gobbling up as much of the North American landmass as it could. Is it any less ‘colonial’ to settle and take over lands that are physically attached to one’s country than those seperated by water?
Not that this makes the US particulalry bad or anything like that, plenty worse things have happened throughout history but I’m just puzzled as to why Americans seem to think that they don’t have a colonial history.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:46 am 20. RJ:Take a serious look at the “sado-masochistic” model of interaction. See the energies being transferred, the games played. Look for a creeping, a ratcheting up of power demands.
Where will it go? Who will assume the role of Obama’s lost Father?
Why should we have to be a part of this sick game?
Is this the final act of a narcissistic generation, or is there more to come?
Will global war be the final curtain for this ugly play?
Can Tom Daschle ruin our American health care system in Obama’s first term, or will he need a second to finish the job?
Will the mean and sadistic George Mitchell be able to hurt those Jews while saying he doesn’t hate them?
Can Hillary find a set of balls like Bill’s she can castrate while on the world stage?
How much milk and honey can Pelosi’s breasts provide for others?
Homer should be alive today, along with Shakespeare!
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:58 am 21. LeighB:Obama is playing a dangerous game indeed. While some may begin to question his patriotism again, I never stopped. This presidency cannot be over fast enough for me. I am embarrassed by this arrogant man who appears to only love one thing, himself.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:07 am 22. Vaughn:The Muslim world knows only FORCE. There is not a trace of honor ,or trust from one tribe to another. To remotely believe they will ever coexist with us ‘kaffirs’ is lunacy. Stop all immigration of Muslims and ban the Koran today.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:08 am 23. Sara for America:The meanest boy in class steals my backpack and torches it. The next day, he finds out where I live, and kills my cat.
I would go to his house, with 100 bodybuilders, tell him to back off, or else. And he would know that I meant it.
Dear Sweet Obama, on the other hand, would tell the school counselor. He’d say that he was partially responsible for the boy’s behavior because he had a nice backpack in the first place, it wasn’t fair, and he was sorry. And the cat did contribute to global warming and wasn’t necessary anyhow. Pets are childish things.
The counselor would then call the mean boy into the office. The counselor would click and cluck over the boy’s family situation, and he’d get free counseling during math class, while I buried my cat, and got an F for not turning in my homework.
Meanwhile, Dear Sweet Obama called the student newspaper to make sure he got a front page headline and a gold star for caring.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:15 am 24. John B:In making his first ever TV interview with an Arab Islamic network sends quite a strong statement in and of itself.
Is this the first step toward dhimmihood? By apologizing for America’s past actions, admitting mistakes, and offering the promise to be good in the future sounds an awful lot like a national acceptance of the superiority of the enemy.
Where does this jackass get off making excuses for what we’ve done to protect our country from terrorist atrocities? He overreaches his office in this.
(I use the term; “jackass”, in the historical context of President Andrew Jackson.)
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:28 am 25. Ron Kean:If we on the right are correct about Obama being long on rhetoric and short on substance, everyone here and overseas will learn it together. Unfortunately for us, that may be to our detriment and to their benefit.
And it’s more evident every day the bottom means top and up means down when Obama and the Arab world doesn’t want to recognize, appreciate, and voice that America has freed, defended, and aided so many millions of Muslims over the past few decades.
Shame on them.
Keep it up professor. You are a clarity in the fog.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:29 am 26. Webutante:I hope this gesture works out, but I shudder to think what it could portend for our country. To wit, Ahmadinejad already sees blood and demanding apologies from us for all the wrongs we’ve done Iran…will the real Jimmy Carter please stand up!
I fear President Obama has no moral compass or political compass either. I’m holding my breath. Good observations here.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:35 am 27. MarkD:It took less than a day for Iran to demand an apology from the US. Has Obama heard of Jimmy Carter?
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:38 am 28. Broadsword:Assume that one of BHO’s MO’s is to tell people what they want to hear, or what BHO believes they want to hear. The campaign is my example. If he is doing the same thing with this interview, (I am only postulating this, I am not 100% certain), but if he is, is he trying to co-opt his listeners? I do think he is trying to co-opt the Republicans in the house, and that he co-opted the electorate. Response…?
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:39 am 29. Broadsword:Let me add one more thing. When BHO has been very clear on particulars, “I could no more disown him than…”, or any of his, “I have always..” “I have never…” statements; we should not believe him when we understand what he says. When he speaks in Obama-wockey, he is telling us what he really believes, and what he intends to do.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:43 am 30. nadadhimmi:Why oh why can’t people understand how noble and good is Obama. Everything he says is correct, and if you disagree, you’re a racist and should be sent to Camp Acorn for re-education. If we’re just nice to terrorists, they’ll be nice to us. Aren’t you willing to bet your kids lives on the good intentions of terrorists? (sarcasm off)
Jan 28, 2009 - 8:01 am 31. Matt Carolan:Well said, Mr. Hanson. Minus the campaign mode, Obama’s gesture might have been helpful. What it will do now, instead, is embolden Iran and other radical elements in the Arab world to demand more from the U.S. While I did not agree with all of President Bush’s tactics, what we are seeing now is an immature president, who leaves us wondering, despite his supposed intelligence, if he is psychologically and intellectually capable of getting out of the permanent campaign.
Jan 28, 2009 - 8:06 am 32. Ann141:What’s frightening is that there is no evidence that he sees this as any kind of game (triangulation or otherwise).
I think his well-documented ignorance, his sense of self-importance and enjoyment personal power indicate that this kind of passive aggressive posturing is actually a foundational policy.
Jan 28, 2009 - 8:31 am 33. trangbang68:Where have all the Obamatrons on these boards gone? Are they already suffering buyer’s remorse? Were they only stoked for the election fight and now have better things to do?
Jan 28, 2009 - 8:35 am 34. David Thomson:Disagree on Baby Boomers electing the guy. While that is a sad group, it was largely younger people that carried the day. They at least have the excuse of being ignorant and naive regarding the ways of the world.
“what we are seeing now is an immature president”
This may say it best. Is Barack Obama our “immature president?” Will this be the way he will be generally perceived by future historians? Obama is indeed poorly prepared for his present responsibilities.
Jan 28, 2009 - 8:38 am 35. Carolb:Well, I’m a Democrat and voted for this guy, and I was not happy about what he said, or the fact that he chose an Arab station for his first formal interview as president. Why?
I’m tired of all the symbolism. This guy seems to be more about symbolism than substance. Enough already! It’s as if he and Axelrod have cooked up this list of “symbolic gestures” and they’re going through the list checking everything off, one by one. What’s next?
Jan 28, 2009 - 9:18 am 36. Jbl:We’re in trouble when our own president disses the nation to another country.
Yes, this is Jimmy Carter, redux. “Love me, despots, love me!”
Jan 28, 2009 - 9:32 am 37. “Stimulus” bill needs to die… | The Anchoress:[...] president is busy doing a Carter-like critique of his own nation to the rest of the world, we have to demand, at the very least, some say in how [...]
Jan 28, 2009 - 9:39 am 38. Ann141:I was just reminded of his line at Saddleback church and it is relevant here.
He is demonstrating (as we suspected he would) that the Presidency is above his pay grade.
Jan 28, 2009 - 9:43 am 39. lucy:Does the Muslim world have a stake in our well-being?
I thought not.
Jan 28, 2009 - 9:49 am 40. LSD:“I am glad Obama confounds the radical and hostile Islamic world, if it is in fact true that he does.”
I think it is more likely that he may impress the benign and moderate Islamic world. The radical and hostile ones are not likely to be fooled. -Still if he can find some friends in the Muslim media and impress the masses, I guess that would in turn hurt the extremists.
I do think it is a dangerous game that is likely to fail.
It seems that because we are so aware of their poverty and depravity, we make the mistake of under-estimating the enemy’s intelligence and sophistication.
This new President is fascinating in a terrifying sort of way…
Jan 28, 2009 - 10:08 am 41. aloysiusmiller:Check this out in the Wall Street Journal:
Commentary by Fouad Ajami Obama Tells Arabia’s Despots They’re Safe
Jan 28, 2009 - 10:33 am 42. Saltherring:Shades of milquetoast Jimmy Carter in Obama’s folly of attempting to pacify those who hate us and have sworn to detroy us. It will be interesting to note Obama’s response to Ahmadinejad’s call for America to “apologize” to Iran. Is this guy really the president America desired and elected? How did we regress to the point we would consider such an ignorant and unprepared fool as capable of leading us?
Jan 28, 2009 - 10:43 am 43. always right:It is doubly disgusting since this piece came out of Obamam himself.
You can attribute those dole-eyed peaceniks, far left Pelosi/Reid type with ignorance, naiveness, and not in the least, a heavy dose of stupidness.
However, with Obama’s background, his understanding of the ‘peace loving’ mooooslems and their culture, there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for his performance.
Jan 28, 2009 - 10:50 am 44. sean sarto:Wow, the “Good cop/Bad cop” retinue..the rest of the world will never see through that…
Jan 28, 2009 - 10:51 am 45. e:Well, Ahmadinejad has decided to capitalize on this opportunity. He’s asking for an apology for American ‘crimes’ against Iran. He wants Obama to vindicate the mullah’s lies that all of their problems are secretly caused by the US. Go to Hell Ahmadinejad!!
Found the link originally on the Drudge report:
Jan 28, 2009 - 11:04 am 46. always right:http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50R1SX20090128?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true
Symbolic gestures only go so far. It will be enlightening what Obama would do after US (and US interests) are attacked.
A bi-partisan committee (the same ones from 9/11 commission) for a 6 months study on the root cause? Throw a few missles at empty camps?
While conducting The Great Debate at home?
Jan 28, 2009 - 11:07 am 47. Justin Credible:Ahmadinajad has just upped the ante on B. Hussein Obama’s “apology”. Preconditions? you bet!
Jan 28, 2009 - 11:28 am 48. Marie Claude:“Is it any less ‘colonial’ to settle and take over lands that are physically attached to one’s country than those seperated by water?”
The Americans were the “barbarian hordes” rushing towards the western “eldorado”
while we brought “civilisation” to our colonies :
“tea-time”, “cricket”, “school uniforms” and “men’s clubs” for the British, :p
Jan 28, 2009 - 11:29 am 49. J. PINKERTON SNOOPINGTON:while we built infrastructures and set our Napoleon code and the seeds of liberty and equalitiy revendications for their future independance
GEORGE BEST
Jan 28, 2009 - 11:37 am 50. JED:#1
ON POINT !!! PERFECT, GEORGE.!!!!
President Obama has an act that worked on the majority of America. If one listens to his speeches what sells is not the content but the preformance. In a highly modified preachers lilt and cadence he introduces, subtly the hellfire and damnation of a situation. The audience follows the rich voice. After the subject of the speech has been sufficiently torn apart then hope is offered. The crowd wants to believe.
Jan 28, 2009 - 12:10 pm 51. e:Now he is trying his act on other cultures. Not all of those cultures are as motivated by guilt and fairness as his home country. A question he might ask himself is weither the world’s populaces can be organized as a community.
48. Marie Claude:
The westward expansion of the US is certainly more akin to barbarian expansion than colonization. We took over and turned the territories into states. Unlike a colony, new states to the US were equal in rights to every other state in the Union. Puerto Rico started as a colony, but is now a territory. Maybe the biggest difference is that the Puerto Ricans are full US citizens.
France may have done slightly better than the Dutch regarding the current state of their colonies. However, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Syria aren’t anything to be proud of. I’m not bashing France, but a lot of these Napoleonic reforms didn’t reach France’s colonies until de Gaulle. And at that time, decolonization was in full swing.
Jan 28, 2009 - 12:42 pm 52. Rogue Male:Just noting that reference to “Muslim Indochina” in the second para should read “Indonesia”. Easy enough slip to make.
Cheers.
Jan 28, 2009 - 12:44 pm 53. Paul M Hupf:Militant Islam did not spread throughout Asia Minor, across North Africa and into Spain in the seventh century by means of conversion. It outlawed Christianity. Armed force was the means it used. Once again, after the fall of Constantinople in the fifteenth century, Ottoman Turks, professing militant Islam, reached the gates of Vienna before being stopped. There is a militant arm of Islam which will not be deterred because that element believes it is carrying out the will of Allah. That militant arm is intolerant of other beliefs. It has a political as well as a religious objective It will not be dissuaded by the words President Obama used on Arab TV. It will not be dissuaded by President Obama when the latter suggests that the United States’ “dictatorial” attitude will change during the time President Obama is in office. Rather militant Islam is and will be encouraged in the pursuit of its inflexible agenda.
Jan 28, 2009 - 1:08 pm 54. maggie:http://www.newsflavor.com/Politics/US-Politics/Will-He-be-Known-as-the-Teflon-President.480435
My work is not perfect but you have just given me some new ideas for my own comments
since you are articulating my own uneasiness about this man.
He relies too much on his skin colour. The trouble is that beneath the surface there is a very shallow person who knows next to nothing about the world stage and nothing about internal economics.
Cannot wait to see what happens when he gets with Kevin Krudd. (RUDD)
Jan 28, 2009 - 1:30 pm 55. Ruebacca:Two naive men together, although one is a former diplomat, who try to be smooth talkers trying to placate everybody….
Muslisms are killing people all over the world. Draw a line arond the muslim world and it cuts throughh 85% of the worlds confilct zones. Muslims in the streets of the west are calling for genoside of Jews. You can’t resone with these people.
Jan 28, 2009 - 1:59 pm 56. Bridget:VDH – brilliant as usual – I take issue with the statement he made about representing other than just the United States’ interests. His role first and foremost is to represent the United States’ and its interests. If those interests also happen to provide all of the changes you listed, then all the better. The arrogance of his statement leads me to believe he thinks he is representing citizens of the world….they didn’t vote for him, citizens of the US did (not me
). It is imperative he prioritize his actions to meet the needs of the US.
This man lacks character and his actions, choices of teammates in the government and philosophy are demonstrating it everyday. Unfortunately, we, the citizens of the US, must suffer through this.
Jan 28, 2009 - 2:16 pm 57. The Historian:OBAMA LIVING JIHAD FAIRY TALE
Dear Mr. President: there is a huge difference between the Islamic faithful and jihadist murderers.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/01/jihadists-1-obama-0.html
Jan 28, 2009 - 2:19 pm 58. Marie Claude:e,
“However, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Syria aren’t anything to be proud of”
do you mean what the became/are ?
It doesn’t seem so for VietNam who owes us her “modernisation”, 80 % of the population was alphabetised.
http://www.geocities.com/vietnamrp/french_influence.htm
while for Cambodge, it wasn’t ruled as a colony but as a “mandate”, therefore the french influence is less “visible” ; she was there mainly there to empech war between siameses and vietniameses.
http://www.localhistories.org/cambodia.html
Syrie, also was ruled as a mandate, though with more involvement of the frenchs, infrastructures, education still have french remains. The elite still speak french, and in Lenanon the whole county used to speak french.
Yet, it’s odd that these countries reversed into a communist revolution, though it was more the influence of their proxier neighbours, China for Indochine, URSS for Syria.
Jan 28, 2009 - 2:20 pm 59. J. Rockford:“President Obama has an act that worked on the majority of America” and “what we are seeing now is an immature president”
These are profound lines! Countries like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba et.al must be absolutely licking their chops, along with militant Islam. Because unlike what the ignorant, complacent majority of Americas think, these nations and cultures act out of self-interest only. They will take the foolish and ignorant B. Hussein to the cleaners. Unfortunately he takes the rest of the country down with him.
Jan 28, 2009 - 2:50 pm 60. Someone75:David Thomson:
You can call Obama many things, but poorly read? You’re only exposing your ignorance. The only way you could think he was poorly read is if you don’t understand the majority of what he’s saying. Is it actually you who is poorly read? And if Obama is poorly read, what does that make Bush? Wow
Regards
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:17 pm 61. Roderick Reilly:“”"”"”"That war lasted for about 6 years and the Christian armies were victorious, the Holy Land was restored to Christians, and the Crusaders went home.”"”"”"”
Well, no, not exactly. They reclaimed the Holy Land for Chrisitianity and many of them stayed and set up fiefdoms in what was known as the Levant (from which the name Lebanon comes from), which included what is now Israel and the “Palestinian” territories, Syria, Lebanon, Sinai, and part of modern-day Jordan. They hung onto this region until the end of the 13th century.
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:18 pm 62. Roderick Reilly:“”"”"”“Is it any less ‘colonial’ to settle and take over lands that are physically attached to one’s country than those seperated by water?””"”"”"”
Marie Claude, “e:” answered you perfectly, so you are somewhat off the mark on that, but what is not widely known or aknowledged is that the U.S. was a bona-fide colonial power when it took various territories from Spain in 1898. Also, Hawaii could most definitely qualify as a colony of the U.S.
At the opening of WWII, we were one of the “white” colonial powers that Japan was attacking.
Ironically, we lost our knowledge of ho to be a “smart” colonial power in modern times, which would have been useful in Vietnam and Iraq, NOT because we were “recolonizing” those places, but because we lost whatever expertise we had in dealing with different cultures that we had to interact with intimately in times of conflict.
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:25 pm 63. DavidN:This has all been very interesting. Dr. Hansen indicts Obama for his rhetoric, though acknowledging that it might, conceivably, be effective. Then a bunch of naysayers log on and call the President everything they can think of. Frankly I’m a little bit disappointed, in the rhetoric of the comments, anyway.
Obama has a number of facets to his character, and some of them seem to conflict with one another. He personally seems to be a nice guy. In his appearances on the Tonight Show and elsewhere, where the questions are softballs and he can anticipate some of the answers he’ll be giving, he comes across as gracious, friendly, charismatic, and mildly self-deprecating. It’s about the right tone for someone running for office. In the speeches he gives he’s rather eloquent, if a bit self-absorbed and self-aware (as if looking at himself in history’s mirror). In press conference interviews he looks at times unsure of himself, stumbles a bit, but seems to (most of the time, anyway) look like he knows what he’s talking about. Republicans, right now, can’t criticize a president for a lack of eloquence. We’ll need to wait a bit for that one to work.
The fact of the matter is that Obama became president not because *we* were snookered by him, but because the media was, and they frankly are so biased at this point that it’s ridiculous. So Joe the Plumber’s $1000 tax lien (about which he didn’t even know) is front-page news, while Geithner’s failure to pay income taxes (which he should have known he owed, regardless of whether he did) are insignificant. The Bush Administration’s ephemeral phone-tapping programs are “shredding the Constitution” while hacking Sarah Palin’s e-mail account is just college hijinks. Both of Obama’s Senate race opponents (in the Democratic primary and the general election) have their sealed divorce records anonymously leaked onto the internet, and no one says a word. Obama, himself, just takes advantage of the situation, as most people (other than those with an excess of self-restraint) would. If your neighbor dropped $10,000 on your driveway, every day for a week, and was hostile to you when you tried to return it, most people would wind up keeping the money. It’s the way the world works.
So now this spoiled politician, never really subjected to a serious debate with anyone, never really questioned, never really cross-examined, with the ideals and imaginings of millions of empty-headed liberals overlaid onto his personality superficially…now he gets to go out in the light of the rest of the world and try and convince them to stop hating us. He’s already been rejected by the extremist elements (notably Chavez and al-Qaeda) but those could be expected to do what they’ve done. But the rest of the world has expectations too, and while they’re unrealistic in their concrete points, maybe just acting like you respect tin-horn dictators elsewhere in the world will have some effect. You never know.
I think the point is this. As long as he sticks with changing the rhetoric, and doing some cosmetic things like closing Guantanamo, and does nothing else substantially different from Bush, the whole thing might work. The drones are still shooting missiles at Taliban types in Pakistan, regardless of what he *says*. If the new strategy hasn’t even had a chance to work yet, a week into the new administration is hardly the time to call the whole thing a failure. Even if the election was rigged by the media, he did win it, and deserves the chance to take his shot, win or lose.
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:32 pm 64. David S:As usual Obama uses the tools at his disposal to best effect.
Nay sayers here don’t understand that Obama is speaking to the people of the world. There will always be fringe groups that want to destroy others. Best to get the people on our side first, then take out the troublemakers with their help.
Certainly more efficient than killing them all.
Peace.
DS
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:33 pm 65. Delia:Is it “okie dokie” to call Obama a Muslim yet? Because he sure as hell isn’t like ANY Christian I’ve ever known (and, believe me…I’ve known some real nutters in that camp too)!
It might be too late to hope and pray my worst fears about Obama won’t be realized but hope and pray I shall regardless.
I love my United States of America and I’m mighty proud of my Country no matter what some ego maniac car salesman/ lying Chicago politician/pimp striding jerk with a hidden past and present who got voted into presidency by a bunch of lefty, self-hating douchebags wants to say negative about ‘er.
God bless the USA.
Screw you, spastic, blind, dumb and deaf Libs. Thanks for flushing.
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:43 pm 66. kathie:You’re good VDH!
Jan 28, 2009 - 4:00 pm 67. David S:@65
Delia,
It’s a free country, and you can call Obama what you like. But saying he is Muslim does not make it so. He may not be like any Christian you’ve ever known, but that only speaks to your ignorance.
It is never too late to hope and pray, but your worst fears are likely unfounded. Obama is simply helping the USA make a course correction. We have been heading the wrong way for a while, so it’s a big change.
We all love the USA, and we are all proud of our country, despite her faults. But we cannot live our best future if we do not address the problems of the past.
I think I speak for many Obama supporters when I declare that I am happy to be flushing the GWB days away. I fear the stains may be tough to remove, but at least we got the load out.
You should be more kind to your disabled countrymen, however. Many of the spastic, dumb and deaf Libs are veterans and victims of Bush’s war.
When you ask God to bless the USA, you might consider saying a prayer for the world as a whole – just a thought. Seems like the Christian thing to do.
Also, in terms of decorum, you should call Obama “Mr. President”.
Peace.
DS
Jan 28, 2009 - 4:18 pm 68. Marie Claude:Roderick Reilly,
It wasn’t ment as an “objective truth”, but as a joke !!!
Ironically, we lost our knowledge of ho to be a “smart” colonial power in modern times, which would have been useful in Vietnam and Iraq, NOT because we were “recolonizing” those places, but because we lost whatever expertise we had in dealing with different cultures that we had to interact with intimately in times of conflict.
the problem is that “Civilisation” has become an “empty ideal suit” nowadays ; money, time, prevail our means
Jan 28, 2009 - 4:33 pm 69. TLM:“Best to get the people on our side first, then take out the troublemakers with their help.”
True, but a bit trite. By “people” you mean moderate Muslims, I suppose. Unfortunately, they don’t control the dialogue in the ME. Fanatics and repressive governments do. I’ve yet to see moderate Muslims stand up to either.
My impression of Obama’s interview: he was speaking to his Leftist base here in America. The whole thing was designed for domestic consumption. Hopefully, he is only shoring up his liberal bona fides at home, while he awaits his first security challenge over there, which he would likely respond to much more forcefully than did Bill Clinton. Kowtow to the Left, smack the Jihadis hard if you have to, get back to fixing, I mean putting the fix to, our democracy.
Jan 28, 2009 - 4:40 pm 70. Ann141:65.Delia
Now tell us what you REALLY think!!
Love it!
And some of my friends probably call me a “Christian nutter” at some points, too…but I appreciate your sentiments expressed so clearly!
God bless the USA.
Jan 28, 2009 - 5:11 pm 71. therealist:Obama is so naive that he thinks he can make peace in the middle east with a couple of good speeches and interviews. What do you expect from liberals?
Jan 28, 2009 - 5:27 pm 72. D Foster:With Obama apologizing to the Arabs and on their TV Network, is what the America Left and Elite Media want, Watch these guys turn their back on Israel and the American Military, finally America.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:02 pm 73. DeK:The American have sit back and allowed the media and rthe Elite left to Destroy the POTUS in George W Bush,( a lot of help from the republican Congress and “W” himself). George Bush was and is right on the radical muslim terrorist threat to western society and individual freedoms.
Maybe, one day, soon, I hope, we will wake up and demand that the government takes the war to the enemy. The Terrorist and Muslims will not ever respect our way of life and freedoms, Never.
How not surprising! Iran’s president just told BHO to kiss his a**, and, by the way,apologize and re-do US foreign policy.
I suspect the vicious mongrel has just bitten the naively offered hand. Gee, I guess campaign talking points don’t translate directly into serious policy. Kind of like throwing post-its at a rhinocerous.
I’d rub my hands in glee if it wasn’t my country and way of life at risk.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:26 pm 74. Delia:Ann141,
I’ll take a Christian Nutter ANY day over a Muslim terrorist sympathizer (-and yes, sorry but the Guantanamo Bay detention camp abort shlock Baracky-Poo is up to is just that). So much for safety.
I’m also of the mind to ignore posters whom try to interject their own rants over mine in an attempt to bate me. Therefore, I’m just not going to argue points that have been reiterated over and over and over here and libs keep thinking if they ignore enough of the GLARING about Barack and his Cronies full of Oscar Meyer luncheon meat then truth will no longer exist (puh-freakin’-thetic).
Obama plans on turning our dollar into a peso.
From a poster via a dif blog:
Some Vladimir Lenin quotes for you to ponder and Barack Obama fits all of these.
“The goal of socialism is communism.”
“A lie told often enough becomes truth”
“There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.”
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency”
“The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses”
“The government is tottering. We must deal it the death blow an any cost. To delay action is the same as death.”
If Barack Obama told the truth (an impossibility) he would say all of those things Vladimir Lenin said.
~
The part that truly stands out to me is this:
“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency”
HELLLLLLLLLLLO?!
People who have at least a few brain cells to rub together ARE afraid.
The dumbing down of ‘Merica has finally come to fruition.
Bend over. Kiss Ass Sayonara.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:42 pm 75. TLM:David S:
Condescension becomes the liberal Leftist. So does hypocrisy.
“I think I speak for many Obama supporters when I declare…”
“When you ask God to bless the USA, you might consider…”
“…but your worst fears are likely unfounded.”
You should speak for yourself, and refrain from presuming to know someone elses worst fears or who they should pray for. That would only be the Christian thing to do.
“Many of the spastic, dumb and deaf” white racists are veterns and you should, therefore, accord them all manner of kindness. This, of course, would also hold true for veteran Timothy McVeigh.
Some risk sacrificing themselves to protect their country. They are called veterans. Some risk sacrificing their country to protect their victimhood. They are called Leftists. Never again confuse the two.
Also, in terms of decorum, you should call Bush “Mr President”. Pass that on to your leftist friends.
Jan 28, 2009 - 6:55 pm 76. Stuart:Thanks, Victor, for pointing out that, among a fistful of naive and pompous statments, Obama failed to mention any of the concrete things the U.S. has done to benefit the region.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:09 pm 77. ALIK BERG:Though I think President Bush’s record is riddled with mistakes, I really objected to Obama’s inference that Bush didn’t speak to Muslims respectfully. He forgets Bush’s frequent reference to Islam as a religion of peace, the Eid celebrations he attended, and, most importantly, his belief that freedom and democracy were things Muslim societies deserved. He could have opposed some of Bush’s methods, but to act and speak as if the project of promoting democracy, with some actual fruits to show, is ignorant, misleading, and will not escape the understanding of many Muslims as time goes on.
Obama has nothing but empty rhetoric for his domestic and foreign audiences-and audiences they are.
As usual the ignorance of puny and inconsequential facts is staggering in our newly minted CEO;”partnership America had with the Muslim world 20 or 30 years ago”?–as in oil embargo times or (better) as in Iranian hostage crisis–but the denizens of the famed fifty five states of the union would not notice nor for that matter the dwellers of the Ivy.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:15 pm 78. Dave (other Dave):When Obama is done, this country is going to have a new found respect for the realism that was the Bush Administration. I would not be surprised if, when the Obama disaster gets in full swing, he starts supporting the pathetic smear and witch hunts that Waxman and Co. are pushing for. He will be looking for any distraction he can find at that point.
If Obama wants real bipartisan support, he should stop his pandering to the extreme left at home and our enemies abroad. Sadly, I doubt that will happen.
Jan 28, 2009 - 7:31 pm 79. Al Barger:Even as a rightwing nutjob, I am determined to put the best interpretation I reasonably can on President Obama as long as possible. Thus, the Al-Arabiya interview and this nicey-nice letter he’s cooking up for the Iranians COULD be something of a feint. He’s going to say every pukey liberal thing he can to make nice – and then when we have to help Israel smash their nuclear facilities or some such, he’ll be shrugging his shoulders about how hard he tried to make nice. You all see what I said. I talked to them, talked so sweet, offered carrots and sympathy and a handjob and did everything I could.
Then he sends The Bitch (God bless and preserve Hillary) to play bad cop – and then the actual bad cops do what they gotta do. Then Obama goes on tv shaking his head and expressing very convincing remorse over having to kill people and break their stuff. I’m so sorry, but they MADE me do it.
Jan 28, 2009 - 8:44 pm 80. Wallace:Indonesia, not Indochina.
Jan 28, 2009 - 10:21 pm 81. Delia:You may want to correct that for the sake of accuracy.
B.H.O’s self-hate in a nutshell:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,348649,00.html
Jan 28, 2009 - 10:59 pm 82. Anonymous:“The westward expansion of the US is certainly more akin to barbarian expansion than colonization. We took over and turned the territories into states. Unlike a colony, new states to the US were equal in rights to every other state in the Union. Puerto Rico started as a colony, but is now a territory. Maybe the biggest difference is that the Puerto Ricans are full US citizens.”
US nationals in Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa, Virgin Islands and the Marianas still can’t vote for President or have voting representation in congress though can they? So they don’t have exactly the same rights.
In terms of the US westward expansion, it was more akin to the Eastward expansion of the Russian empire than the European overseas empires but it was still a colonial endeavour. Colonial settlement was encouraged by the US govt and once a critical mass in an area had been reached where the indigenous population was outnumbered and marginalised, then statehood and equal rights were granted but even then the native american population often was not able to participate in the democratic institutions until later. For example the territory of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was not fully incorporated into the US until the admittance of Wyoming into the union in 1890, between these dates the settlements were more akin to US colonies.
In the same way the British empire brought democracy and citizenship to those territories where settlers came to outnumber natives (Australia, Canada, new Zealand) while it didn’t in those colonies where settlers remained a minority (India, African colonies). France incorporated some colonies (eg Algeria) into France proper and most of its overseas territories these days (Martinique, Reunion, Guadeloupe, French Guiana) are as much a part of France as Hawaii or Alaska are parts of the USA.
So although the US has a somewhat different colonial history to the major European powers it certainly has one.
Jan 29, 2009 - 12:26 am 83. Pops in Vienna:If Obama is listening, some Islamic extremist friends of mind have a few request about how we can improve relations:
Close down MTV and other decandent television productions that promote promiscuity and unconventional life styles.
Outlaw all forms of Christian broadcasting.
Close down Hollywood.
Make homosexual conduct a death penalty offense.
Prohibit pork being served.
Make it illegal for women to get an education or pursue a profession.
Stop sending your NGOs and State Department people to our countries that are promoting gender equality, women’s rights or seek to outlaw female circumcision.
Enact laws that prohibited any slander or ridicule against the Prophet Mohammed or Islam.
Withdraw all military and economic support for Israel.
Prohibit Jews from holding public office, voting or owning land.
Establish Sharia law in your country.
Establish a religious police to enforce it.
Submit to Islam.
Make wearing a neck-tie illegal.
Well, I don’t know about Obama, but I do like that last “listening point”.
Haven’t they been telling us this stuff for years? I was listening. Can anybody add a few more?
Jan 29, 2009 - 5:58 am 84. Jeff Perren:“partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago”
30 years ago the newly-minted theocratic dictatorship of the Iranian mullahs held American diplomats prisoner for 15 months. How convenient to gloss over that fact, which has been responsible for a huge portion of the trouble ever since.
20 years ago they or their partners were blowing up Marines and Navy personnel.
The only type of ‘partnership’ we should have with them is one of policeman and Mafia chieftain. That includes the Saudis, who have been funding Wahhabist groups all the while.
Jan 29, 2009 - 7:08 am 85. marymcl:Obama may have forgotten that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the embassy takeover in Teheran, but Ahmedinejad remembers.
Jan 29, 2009 - 7:23 am 86. TLM:“America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that.”
Quite possibly the most inane statement ever made by an American president regarding the Middle East.
We were not “born” a colonial power (who was?), but became a minor one elsewhere. Furthermore, many Muslims consider the State of Israel an American colony by proxy.
The “respect and partnership” 20 or 30 years ago, to the extent it ever existed, was a result of multiple distractions in the Muslim world:
– The dawning realization by Arab states that they could not defeat Israel by outright military invasion leading some to seek accommodation and others to resist by different means.
– Worries about Soviet expansionism south to the Persian Gulf via Afghanistan (or Iran).
– Internecine warfare within and between Muslim states.
We could go on, but you get the point. The main reason we cannot “restore” that “partnership” is that it never existed. Obama gains nothing by promoting an illusory vision of recent history in this region; the Middle East is full of that already. And, unlike the presidential campaign, illusions will not win you many converts to your cause in the Muslim world.
Again, this interview was a sop to the Leftists in this country and in Europe. He speaks their language well, but he can’t possibly be this stupid.
Jan 29, 2009 - 7:58 am 87. Pirate:Hanson talks about triangulation but then he lays out a bunch of conventional wisdom on diplomacy without showing why conventional wisdom is preferred.
I mean, the first point he brings up is about criticizing america. Triangulation would require that he be criticized by the people his enemies hate. Not necessarily america, but bush republicans would suffice. Which is why Bush is outright mentioned. Those are points one and two.
Point 3 is strange because i don’t see what there is to beware of there. triangulation involves playing the middle man.
Point 4 is the only real observation here that makes sense. But it’s merely a rephrasing of the question of whether or not triangulation work.
I mean really all i get out of this article is that Obama is engaging in saying things that you don’t want him to say. For no real reasons other then that they hurt your feelings. That’s the point though. You aren’t supposed to be happy with this. You’re supposed to whine about him being a terrorist appeaser and blah blah blah (not saying that you did, just what the desired effect is) and this allows Obama to elevate above the fray. That’s triangulation.
Jan 29, 2009 - 8:22 am 88. Obama’s Arabiya interview showed weakness; Al Jazeera was other option « Creeping Sharia:[...] More from Victor Davis Hanson: Dancing Among Landmines—The Obama Al-Arabiya Interview [...]
Jan 29, 2009 - 10:04 am 89. Doug Wright:So, what will BHO’s response be when a major IED or perhaps a nuke is used on a USA city. Maybe it’ll be on a Redneck city and BHO will say something like: “Pity, our bad!” Or, perhaps he’ll promote another stimulus bill.
It’s going to be an interesting four years till 2012. I’d never accepted the 12/21/2012 Mayan end of the world calendar concept but maybe there’s something to it.
Jan 29, 2009 - 12:01 pm 90. TLM:Pirate:
Your condescending rant is childish. No one’s feelings are hurt by what Obama says. Many people could be hurt, for real, if our rookie president, who thinks he understands the Middle East, gives a mistaken impression to our adversaries. That’s a good way to find yourself in a war, and unable to “elevate above the fray”.
Jan 29, 2009 - 2:58 pm 91. David S:@75 TLM,
I only condescend because I’m trying to communicate at your level. I’m not Christian, nor Muslim. I speak for only myself.
You don’t understand the left because you refuse to listen. It is your own loss. Our past-president may also be referred to as the Defendant in Chief.
Peace.
DS
Jan 29, 2009 - 3:14 pm 92. Scott Blakeman:I don’t purport to be an expert on Islam, but it seems to me that the Muslim world would view Obama as an apostate. A son turning his back on his father’s religion? Blasphemy! Technically, no one converts to Islam as they say all human beings are born Muslim and return to the “true Faith.” The President may be in for a rude awakening as multiculturalism is NOT a value respected in the Muslim world.
Jan 29, 2009 - 3:15 pm 93. Horace Wells:Glad to see the usual fascist small minds throwing their whole two cents into this board. Why not give something like this a chance, it costs next to nothing and doesn’t sacrifice a thing. You can tell that most of the people commenting here are little nobodies who got what little education they have from talk show hosts; they think the best way to conduct foreign affairs is to insult, threaten and bully others into agreeing with them. What harm can a little diplomacy do, except to the fragile egos of retarded jingomaniacs?
Jan 29, 2009 - 7:14 pm 94. Horace Wells:Dave
Jan 29, 2009 - 7:17 pm 95. TLM:Your WW ll analogy is totally irrelevant as well as inaccurate. Who are we fighting? industrialized advance countries or some rag tag barely organized jihad terrorists with no industry or chance of even winning one battle? At best they can do is set off a car bomb in a third world country. Spare me!
David S:
“I think I speak for many Obama supporters when I declare…”
“I speak for only myself.”
Your words, hypocrite.
Jan 29, 2009 - 8:12 pm 96. DeK:Horace #94…admittedly there can be crazies on the right, although most posters here seem rational– and civil. Why do leftist types almost invariably devolve to adolescence with petulant name calling, flashes of knee jerk anger, and an inability to listen. As if your snotty, arrogant anger is a measure of your high morality and can replace reasoned argument. Reading your post, I note at least six ad hominem slurs to accompany your outrage for those who “insult, threaten, and bully”.
Horace, grow up, then come back and spend time with us adults.
Jan 29, 2009 - 10:13 pm 97. Dino:Uh Mr Hanson?….Your Party, your ideology, your approach to foreign affairs and your “modest thoughts” actually LOST THE ELECTION. Maybe you didn’t notice this? It was in all the papers. THIS approach is called: CHANGE. That’s what seventy-million Americans voted for on Nov 4th..If/when he screws up, feel free to bury him…Until then. Americans have passed judgement on the neocons and Bush. You LOST. Get over it.
Jan 29, 2009 - 11:40 pm 98. Delia:94. Horace Wells:
Dave
Your WW ll analogy is totally irrelevant as well as inaccurate. Who are we fighting? industrialized advance countries or some rag tag barely organized jihad terrorists with no industry or chance of even winning one battle? At best they can do is set off a car bomb in a third world country. Spare me!
~
Horace, forget nukes, let’s play biological warfare:
http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/smallpox.cfm
http://www.faqs.org/health/Sick-V4/Smallpox.html
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/firsthours/smallpox/
~
I don’t know about YOU but I sure as heck don’t want to die this horrible death.
Oh and nukes are happening by the whack nuts that believe in also self-bombing for the ’cause’.
Believe me, I don’t doubt that the first NUKE launched will be by the muslim whack jobbies.
Hello? They send out their women and children to self-ignite. Do you think they even have enough of a conscience to not hit that red button on a WHIM?
Obama makes me want to vomit red, white, and blue for his CLEAR attitude of acquiescence to the muslim dhimming down.
Good luck with all that, Mister not my President. You evil SOB. Yes, I’m saying that NOW before you try to stifle my freedom of speech because my words my hold truth or Allah forbid hurt your easily wounded, spastic, self-aggrandizing EGO.
Jan 30, 2009 - 12:55 am 99. David S:@95 TLM,
You don’t really get it, do you?
I only claim to speak for myself, but I can surmise that many others agree with me. Somehow you think that makes me a hypocrite?
Keep those blinders on. You’re doing great.
Peace.
DS
Jan 30, 2009 - 9:00 am 100. David S:@98
If Obama is not your President, feel free to relocate. I hear Columbia is quite nice this time of year.
Peace.
DS
Jan 30, 2009 - 9:06 am 101. jeff:after a brief review of the comments here i have to say that i’m glad people have a place to vent the bile of their various mental illnesses…
Jan 30, 2009 - 11:04 am 102. Ron Kean:David S
Your anger at President George W. Bush will only hurt you if you don’t try to change. Everytime in the future you’re reminded of people who like a lot him, you’ll feel bad.
Remember the shredder, torture rooms, rape rooms, dried marshlands, mass murders in Iraq? 25,000,000 people are free from that now and they have at least one man to thank – George W. Bush. Little girls learning arithmetic. Boys playing without fear that their father will vanish.
They have more people to thank and that’s the US Military who redeemed themselves after being rushed into retreat in Viet Nam by pro-Communists here in the late 60’s.
Our current President has a short resume. Not much there. We (you too) still don’t know a whole lot about the man other than his tawdry associations. Tell us where he was born. I curious.
Jan 30, 2009 - 11:04 am 103. JoWynn Johns:I wish that you would write about Afghanistan-Pakistan since 9/11. After reading William Dalrymple’s review of Ahmed Rashid’s book, Descent Into Chaos and after hearing David Sanger interviewed about his book, The Inheritance, on Book TV, I would very much like to know your take on that situation.
Jan 30, 2009 - 11:26 am 104. J.E. Dyer:A point on Obama’s approach in the first passage cited. It takes a seriously incompetent official to try to cultivate goodwill with “the Muslim world” by admiring the good ideas of Saudi Arabia. Probably the most positive sentiment you can find about Saudi Arabia in the most terror-producing parts of the Muslim world — the Arab and South Asian societies — is cynicism. The Kingdom is variously seen as hypocritical, sclerotic, corrupt, sold out to the West, and (therefore) morally outrageous as the keeper of the holiest sites of Sunni Islam.
Even the emirs of the Saudis’ Gulf Cooperation Council partners — Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, etc — and their Westernized populations see the Saudis largely as wealthy, overbearing vice tourists. Obama seems to have been ill-advised by his foreign policy team here; or perhaps simply didn’t take their advice (or, who knows, even ask for it).
Anyway, another very perceptive piece from the professor. This blog is always worth a look, even under hardship conditions like DSL being “broke” at the moment, and having to rely on dial-up.
Jan 30, 2009 - 12:14 pm 105. David S:@102 Ron,
I’m not really angry with GWB, just unhappy with his work as President. I don’t know anyone who likes him a lot.
I do recall that Bush & Cheney were very fond of the shredder, torture rooms, rape rooms and mass murders. Our military intervention has probably caused the deaths of at least ten times as many people as Saddam would have.
Obama’s approach is likely to lead to a massive improvement in our relations with the world, though it will take some time. You may not like him, but at least he shows more respect for our country than Bush ever did.
Peace.
DS
Jan 30, 2009 - 2:53 pm 106. Marino:The word is PANDERING. It generates good will in the short term and kills you in the long term.
Jan 31, 2009 - 12:40 am 107. goffredo vantaggi:Dear David S.
What immediately “caused” the death of “at least ten times as many people as Saddam would have” was the systematic murdering and massive terrorist bombings between the Sunnis and Shiites. Al Quaeda acted as a deadly third and very active actor and Iran as a further catalysist. The US military intervention was intially lame because there evidently was no immediate plan to keep the obviously instable situation in check. Once the situation got out of hand it took time to find effective tactics and then a wise strategy. The US made many mistakes that cost the lives of Iraqis but I feel that in the long run Iraq will be a sincere friend of the US. (The US caused the lives of many more Italians than Mussolini would have. Similar things could be said of Germany and Japan.). Certainly the intervention of the US in Iraq “caused” the loss of many lives. But how many lives would have been lost if Saddam had died a natural death? Do you believe his moronic sons would have kept Iraq under the same control? Do you think any regime change would have gone smoothly? I believe that Iraq would have EXPLODED in a spectacular way with many many more deaths and would have caused a regional war.
Jeff
p.s. Bush and Cheney did not forbid torture and I do think that was a major propaganda mistake, but to say they were fond of rape rooms and mass murders is a bunch of crap. By saying such disgusting things you have lost credibility in this “debate”.
Jan 31, 2009 - 1:44 am 108. This is the week...:Although they don’t have enough votes to stop passage, will some GOP Senators go along with Obama in D.C. or Arnold in Sac? If they go along, they get praised for a day, then blamed down the road.
Jan 31, 2009 - 11:06 am 109. Paul M Hupf:Pesident Obama is taking a dangerous position for the welfare of the United States. If the position of the United States in the past was “dictatorial” in matters of foreign policy, particularly as to militant Islam and Iran, how then will he respond when any position this country takes vis-a-vis Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran is challenged as “dictatorial”. He has himself in a position where there is little he can do other than to say that it isn’t, or make concessions against our interest. He greatly underestimates the vigor, intensity and hostility of militant Islam and Iran.
Jan 31, 2009 - 12:04 pm 110. steeple:David S,
You normally offer thoughtful comment on this blog, but I take offense at your apparent hyprocrisy on name-calling of the President. Many on the left were all too happy to show zero restraint in their hatred and lack of respect for President Bush. These words have consequences, and you are continuing the vitriole yourself.
For example, what do you mean by Bush & Cheney being fond of the shredder, torture rooms, rape rooms as mass murders?
Do you have any evidence that our armed forces shredded anyone? Do you have any evidence that we tortured anyone aside from the three who were waterboarded? How many rapes? Would love to hear of the mass murder that our forces committed. No only do you disrespect our former administation, but all of the men and women who have courageously served our nation in difficult circumstances a world away from their families. Our forces showed more restrain in these operations than any other significant army has in history, yet you feel free to hurl out these untrue assertions?
You really should be ashamed for making these comments.
Jan 31, 2009 - 2:10 pm 111. J.E. Dyer:David S — if you want anyone to take you seriously, you will have to specify what evidence there is that “Bush & Cheney were very fond of the shredder, torture rooms, rape rooms and mass murders.”
Even if we stipulate that the three incidents of waterboardng performed in the CIA-run detention facilities show Bush & Cheney to be “very fond of torture rooms,” your reported “recall” of their fondness for the shredder, rape rooms, and mass murders makes you sound like a drug-addled imbecile.
I am sure that’s not what you are. However, you will need to state the basis in evidence for your comments at #105, to gain any intellectual respect.
Jan 31, 2009 - 2:16 pm 112. Robert Winkler Burke:Do the endless signals Obama gives the enemies of the US that its President has an extraordinarily weak inner psyche mean the question is not IF this land of ours will be attacked, but WHEN?
And if the question is WHEN, then the follow up is HOW SOON?
And if SOON, then are we READY?
And if we are NOT ready for our land being attacked because we elected a man with a weak inner psyche to be our President, why did we elect Him? The terrible answer: So that this nation might learn the difference between the spirit of a demagogue and that of our founding fathers.
So in the end, if we survive this man of many broken inner mirrors, our nation will mature, and that greatly. And just in time for a very complicated future, a future that desperately needs guidance from new leaders with the spirit of ‘76.
Jan 31, 2009 - 5:08 pm 113. against the stupid:stop whining queenies. big woop that the president gave the first interview to the qatar news media at least you can be certain that only intelligent questions will be asked. the era of “is ok to be stupid, as long you apologize by the loads and then hide like a sissy” are OVER. enjoy narrow minded freaks.
Jan 31, 2009 - 7:38 pm 114. Ron Kean:David S
That’s humorous about Bush and Cheney and the shredder. For the people who were lowered into it, it wasn’t so humorous.
You equate the women and children that Saddam gassed and shot to death with the violent mad men that the ongoing military operation attracted, exposed and ultimately eliminated.
Please tell us the benefit that we will get from so-called better relations with (what?) countries. Stay with me here.
Jan 31, 2009 - 8:49 pm 115. john from cinncinatti:how come the world can make demands on the USA,and we can’t make any on the world? the world wants a policy shift and why can’t we ask for one from them? stop the jihad, stop the rockets.Obama pinata with all kinds of goodies inside.
Jan 31, 2009 - 11:52 pm 116. Gary Rosen:David S:
“Also, in terms of decorum, you should call Obama “Mr. President”.”
You know, that also applies to former Presidents.
Dino:
“Americans have passed judgement on the neocons and Bush. You LOST. Get over it.”
Losing the two elections before that never shut up you left-wing assholes. We’ll continue exercising our free speech rights until BO suspends the 1st Amendment. Until then, YOU get over it.
TLM:
“he can’t possibly be this stupid.”
Don’t speak too soon!
Feb 1, 2009 - 12:34 am 117. Cat:100. David S:
Feb 1, 2009 - 11:04 am 118. David S:Who are you to tell someone to relocate. For the past 8 years you liberals kept on saying Bush was not your president. We didn’t see any liberals leaving.. Learn how to have a dialogue on a blog and not write so much crap.
@107, 110, 111, 114, 116, 117
Would you care to elaborate on why you think things would have been worse if we had not invaded? I’m very curious to hear what would have happened in this parallel imaginary universe.
__________
I was actually rebutting a comment @65 calling Obama a Muslim, and @102 pointing out problems under Saddam that Bush perpetuated. I’m not ashamed at all for my comments on Bush & Cheney, because their policies have directly led to all of the things I describe. I have offered evidence elsewhere on this site showing that Bush&Co tortured, murdered, and otherwise contributed to the massive violence in Iraq. But that is not the topic at hand. You also overlook that Bush&Co helped Saddam to exercise the power that they later fought to strip him of. If you care to cite some evidence of how awful Saddam’s Iraq was, I’ll be happy to rebut with the comparable figures under Bush.
__________
Less terrorism, cheaper oil, respect in the world, reduced military expenditures… Oh yes, one more thing…
Peace.
DS
Feb 1, 2009 - 8:02 pm 119. David S:@117. Cat:
I didn’t tell anyone to relocate. I was providing a suggestion for folks not happy with the overwhelming mandate provided by their neighbors. I certainly heard plenty of talk from Bush supporters over the past eight years about how you are “with us or against us” and how I could move to Canada if I had a problem with his policies.
The main reason a lot of folks insist that Bush was not our President is because of the Supreme Court intervention and massive election problems that led to both of his terms. Obama’s election is not in question. I was responding to someone who decided Obama was evil – and that he somehow would stifle our 1st amendment rights in some way not yet imagined.
I always felt free to relocate under Bush, but I believed America would come to its senses eventually and return to the path of reason. I feel vindicated.
Peace.
DS
Feb 1, 2009 - 8:13 pm 120. Ron Kean:David S
“I have offered evidence elsewhere on this site showing that Bush&Co tortured, murdered…”
Sorry…this is just not true and the popular mandate (not electoral college) for Obama was less than Bush’s over Kerry.
You’ve been misinformed. It’s understandable considering the derangement syndrome the media that you watch exhibits. I understand you. Your perception of reality has been altered.
All of those millions can thank Bush. I do too. Time will tell.
Feb 2, 2009 - 9:41 am 121. J.E. Dyer:David S — as Ron Kean points out, you have not, in fact, offered evidence for your claim about recalling Bush & Cheney’s fondness for mass murder, rape rooms, and the shredder. (You have also not offered evidence, in an objective sense, for your claim about recalling their fondness for torture rooms; but that is a separate line of argument.) Nor have you offered evidence of how their policies “directly led to all the things [you] describe.”
Instead, you have made assertions in hysterical language and presented no facts to back them up. I note that you do, with an admirable gambler’s bravado, double down by adding the charge that “Bush&Co helped Saddam to exercise the power that they later fought to strip him of” — but again, with no evidence.
The bottom line is that you have failed to make your case. I’m certainly not going to make it for you, nor am I going to argue this on your terms, by making the cases you invite us to make, just as you would have them made, so that you are ready to refute them.
You are wrong in what you say about “Bush & Cheney.” Prove otherwise, if you can.
Feb 3, 2009 - 10:39 am 122. Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » Krauthammer, VDH on the Obama al-Arabiya interview:[...] Tuesday Victor Davis Hanson wrote about Dancing Among Landmines—The Obama Al-Arabiya Interview At some point, soaring rhetoric makes banality the harder to accept. For all the talking about [...]
May 15, 2009 - 2:13 pm 123. Commentary » Blog Archive » Now He Pushes Democracy:[...] of effective democratization for Africa stands in further contrast to his recurring displays of respect for the politics and leadership of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the theocratic monarch of one of [...]
Jul 12, 2009 - 3:34 pm