Barack Obama’s massive Middle East mea culpa

The Telegraph ^ | 6/4/2009 | Nile Gardiner

[markomalley]

(snip)

- Obama attacked the decision to go to war in Iraq - "a war of choice" - it "reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible" etc, without even mentioning the fact Saddam Hussein was failing to comply with several Security Council resolutions. This was completely gratuitous, wrong and unnecessary. There are still over 100,000 American troops fighting in Iraq, and this kind of message will only serve to undermine morale. As President, Obama should have paid tribute to his own soldiers who are putting their lives on the line everyday in a war against Al-Qaeda-backed insurgents. The United States does not need to apologise for removing a brutal dictator from power and liberating over 20 million Muslims from tyranny.

-Obama did not address the scale of the Iranian threat, or Iran's support for terrorism, or UN sanctions against Iran. Obama made no mention of the fact Iran is arming, funding and training some of the terrorist groups in southern Iraq responsible for killing American and British troops.

- The president drew a hugely controversial parallel between Jewish suffering in the Holocaust with the current plight of the Palestinians.

- Obama used the word "occupation" to describe the Palestinian refugee camps, a term more commonly used by Israel-hating UN or EU officials when attacking Israel.

- Once again the president brought up the Guantanamo/torture issue in front of an international audience, part of a ritual exercise in self-loathing that has become a hallmark of the Obama administration.

- Obama did not once use the words "terrorist", "terrorism" or "Islamist". When you are waging a global war, you have to identify who you are fighting against - in this case the free world is fighting against...

(snip)

[VicVega]

“What happens when we start shooting Back ?not advocating anything, for discussion only”

We will all be locked up before that happens. Pre-crime applies only to “right wingers.

We have less rights than muslims, drug gangs, etc.

[coydog]

It’s given us some fine horses. Those and oil are about the only good things.

[freeangel]

0’s disdain for US citizens and this country couldn’t be more obvious when he calls reaction to attack on US soil on 911 an overreaction. In his mind, we should have welcomed sharia to stop any further attacks. Let’s see if that will be his solution when it happens on his watch.