ALEIKUM SALAAM MY ASS

If you’ve been reading my column over the years, you know I was for Obama early and often. Like many Americans I thought it was time for a substantive change after eight frustrating years of George Bush and partisan gridlock. I was further convinced the United States didn’t need the Clintons back in the White House which only made the case for Obama more compelling. Sure, there were some misgivings. Jeremiah Wright and his racist, anti-American rants from the pulpit made me wonder how much of that the Obama’s bought into. Michelle Obama’s statement after a big primary win that it was the first time she had ever been proud to be an American was deeply troubling as was her general prickliness. But every time I began to waver, I thought about four years looking at Hillary Clinton and I was back in the Obama camp.

I remember writing that voters saw Barack Obama as a non-threatening black man of obvious intelligence and grace. If the missus had an attitude, so be it. She wasn’t going to be President of the United States. Furthermore, why would Barack Obama have a chip on his shoulder or harbor any anti-American sentiment? This guy has led a charmed life and his color actually worked to his advantage as he glided through life.

Sure, there were whispers and allegations that Obama was some sort of Muslim Manchurian candidate whose true colors would surface after the election. Anyone espousing such views was dismissed as a right wing nut job or idiot, usually both. I kept telling myself this guy was Columbia and Harvard Law Review. He was whiter than I am and twice as smart. The only thing that worried me about him was his socialist leanings but that worries me about most democrats. In the end, Obama persuaded me and a majority of Americans he shared our core values.

Now I’m beginning to wonder. He got my buyer’s remorse going when he theatrically announced the closing of Gitmo and a no more torture policy but I attributed that to his need to keep the crazies at MoveOn.org calm The subsequent world apology tour got a little nauseating and the Obama’s Jack and Jackie routine began to wear a little thin before the first crocus appeared.

Then came the speech in Cairo last week. In the much ballyhooed address, President Obama told the Arab world what it wanted to hear. The word terrorism was never uttered. His speech completely sanitized Islam while embracing the “great accomplishments” of Muslims through the ages. As I listened to the speech, I wondered why I didn’t know Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were Muslims and that’s a Muslim crescent moon not an American flag on the moon. A more careful reading of the president’s remarks cites calligraphy as Muslim’s greatest accomplishment.

He went on to say, “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.” Try telling that to the untold number of innocent civilians butchered by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan or those in mass graves in Iraq, all murdered in the name of Allah. To use the word tolerance and Muslim in the same sentence is an obscenity. This is a religion that still stones and beheads non-believers and treats women like chattel.

The central tenet of Obama’s speech was America is always the guilty party in our dealings with the Arab world and nowhere in the speech does the president allude to the relentless attacks on the West committed in the name of Islam over the years. The fact that the Obama administration has banned using the word terrorism shows tells me they don’t get or don’t want to. They’re also kidding themselves if they think kissing Arab derrieres is going to deter further acts of terrorism. It will simply make us look more foolish when it happens.

There are two ways to interpret President Obama’s view of Islam and the threats posed by the extremist groups within it. Either Obama has a more genuine sympathy for the grievances of those who want to kill us in the name of Islam or the president thinks this kind of flattering rhetoric will short circuit further attacks. Either interpretation scares me. The ideology that brought down the Twin Towers and killed thousands on 9-11 isn’t going to embrace America or democracy because one president extends an olive branch.
They’re never going to love us and we sure don’t have to love them. America should be more concerned with other nations fearing us than respecting us.


Finally, I’m fascinated by the initial polling on this speech. Much like the election results 60+% of Americans liked the speech. Does that mean most Americans are ashamed of our international profile and America’s history? Do they want America to devolve into some sort of international European Union, suppressing our core values in pursuit of some sort of global harmony? Or do they just not get it and are on still on the proverbial honeymoon? I’m still on board but I’m checking the exit ram