President Obama, Freedom, and Moral Equivalence: The Abandonment of American Vaues Abroad (And At Home)

See Dan's comments to the previous blog entry, and especially his new ones today expressing his reaction to President Obama's speech. I totally agree with those comments.


What you have to understand here is that Dan's writing, and apparently thinking, has always been more "moderate" than mine. That is because Dan appears to be a much nicer guy than I am (I don't know him personally, but that appears true from his writing). I have never considered myself "nice" at all--a self-opinion that has met universal agreement. If you ever wondered why I never remarried after my Mexican-American wife realized her mistake and divorced me, and most people do not "wonder" at that at all, you only have to realize that EVERY woman I have ever spent any tme with has told me that she is "nice". My INVARIABLE response has been that I do not consider myself "nice" at all. One replied to that statement with: "Well, you are not a creep, are you.". Turst me. You do not want to know what I answered to that one. I digress (sort of).


The point is that if "nice guy" Dan, who has always considered me too "extreme" (with, of course, some reason), says these things about President Obama, then Obama must really have gone off the deep end, and Obama has. What is even more disturbing is that the mainstream media is calling this a great moment in history. I heard Bob Schieffer (sp.? Who cares? The man is an idiot) say that this speech will be remembered essentailly as a speech that changed the world, and he said the mere fact that a President of the United States dared give this speech--with its "candor"--was a watershed event for Schieffer. It is enough to make you gag.


First, President Obama made clear what this blog has shown you in the past. Leftists do NOT believe in "freedom". They believe in "leftistm", and that every other system in the world--unless it is a "right wing" dictatorship against which leftists are fighting, or a leftist "cause" like Kosovo or Darfur--is just as good as our system (if not BETTER). For Obama, and his friends on the left, the United States has NOT generally been a positive force in the world, even by example, and the United States is more properly regarded as an "oppressor" rather than a "liberator". For leftists like President Obama, the real question is whether a government is trying to "take care of" its people, and not whether that government is "free". Thus, it does not bother leftists like Obama that most Muslim governments are among the most REPRESSIVE in the world--not to mention THEOCRACIES which are INTOLERANT of other religions (like the Christian religion). It does bother me. And it bothers me that these people HATE us--as well as Israel--and did so well before Iraq (or do you not remember 9/11 and the rhetoric of Saddam Hussein and the rest? Obama doesn't). Yes, I am talking about "Islamic extremists" here, and not the religion of Islam, but MOST Muslim countries in the world are dominated by those extremists--to one degree or another.


Does it help us for our President to PANDER to those extremists, including with a LIE? Of course not. The LIE, by the way, is that the USA is one of the "largest Muslim countries in the world". Pass by the "Muslim country" atrocity. There are, by best figures, about 3 milllion Muslims in the United States. That is not only a small perscentrage of our population, but it is FAR from making us have one of the "largest" Muslim popultations in the world.


Then there is the "moral equivalence" of the left, including the mainstream media. This is the same "moral equivalence" of the old left with regard to the Cold War. Yes, the left used to be APOLOGISTS for the Soviet Union, and to advocate basically the same policy with regard to Communism as Obama appears to advocate with regard to Islamic extremists. . The Soviet system, according to the left, was just different from ours--not worse. Yes, there was no POLITICAL freedom, but there was a commitment to EQUALITY, and to providing what the people needed from the GOVERNMENT. Was not "freedom from want", and "free" health care for all more important than mere political freedom? Nope. Leftists never have believed in FREEDOM.


What was the moral equivalience? Well, I used to read "rvisionist" leftist historians on the origins of the Cold War, and their books and articles bear a disturbing resemblance to Obama's dismissal of 9/11 and Islamic extremism. Obama never MENTIIONED "terrorism" in his speech. What those leftist historians did to balme the U.S. for the Cold War was equate world atrocities of the Soviet Uniton with LESSER alleged "crimes" of the U.S. This is like equating Muslim countries who PERSECUTE Christians with the "prejudice" against traditonal Muslim headgear for women in the USA (not even a prohibition of such headgear as Muslim countries prohibit entire religions and/or religious observance, but such things as school dress codes or employer antagonism).


For the old leftist apologists for Stalin (reminding you of the apologists for Saddam Hussein--a similar monster), it "justified" the Soviet Union oppressing Eastern Europe that Churchill DARED to suggest that an "Iron Curtain" had fallen over the Soviet dominated part of Europe. That was "provocative", and justified the Soviet Union in worrying about their own security. After alll, a EUROPEAN (shades of Reverend Wright) country (Germany) had invaded Russia TWICE.


And every American speech and action became an excuse for the atrocities and oppression of the Soviet Union. Did the Soviet Union crush Hungary, when Hungary tried to reblel against oppression? Well, Dulles (Secretary of State) and Eisenhower had SAID some harsh things about the Soviet Union. Did the Soviet Union erect the Berlin Wall, and MACHINE GUN epople trying to get out of East Germany? Well, weren't we "encouraging" a hemmorage of the "best" people out of East Germany? Weren't we constantly INSULTING the Soviet Union? Why could we not just "all get along", and be friends. We could not expect them to adopt our system, or compromise their own security in the face of OUR threats.


The left has not changed. President Obama was not only willing to equate this country with extreme Muslim countries (oppressive countries), but he was willing to BLAME ISRAEL for its "occupation" and "hjumiliation" of Plaestinians. Way back when, of course, Arabs could have provided Palestinians with a "homeland". Instead, they chose to segregate Palestianinas in camps. In other words, leftist syle, the Muslim countries prefrred to have the "poor Palestianians" as a CAUSE, rather than to really HELP them.


Did I expect President Obama to go to the Mideast and LECTURE to Muslims? Nope, I did not, and I don't consider that a good idea (unless it could work, which I am afraid it would not). But for President Obama to afil to put responisbility on Islam for becoming MORFE TOLERANT is a crime. And what can you say about Obama's mention of FREEDOM in his speech ONLY relaing to the feminist "cause" of more freedom for women (even there, of course, Obama was muted). In other words, FREEDOM for CHIRISTIANS does not matter to Obama. That is not a leftist cause. He can blow that off, just like he can blow off the cause of freedom for all "dissidents" in Muslim countries. Obama does not even believe in freedom for "dissidents" in THIS COUNTRY. He does not quite dare, however, to dismiss the "issue" of freedom for women, because of the ersatz feminism in the Democratic Party ("ersatz" because the resent treatment of Sarah Palin showed that I am more of a feminist than the "feminists" in the Democratic Party--a revelation that shook by self-image to the core).


Think how right this blog has again been proven. What did I tell JEWISH "liberals"? I told them that if they supported Obama and the left, they DESERVE what they get. That is because I saw this coming (no great feat, unless you are in the mainstream media). An Israel relying on President Obama, or other leftists--is an Israel in deep trouble. Yes, I am not "nice'. I am willing to say: "I told you so". For Jewish liberals with an interest in preserving Israel, I can only say that they have done the worst they can for Israel by supporting leftist politicians in the USA--including Obama. For Obama, Israel is "occupying" the lands of the Palestinians. It does not matter to Obama that MUSLIMS were unwilling to provide those lands for the Palestinians until they FAILED to destroy Israel (remember the 5 day war?). Palestinians NEVER had a "homeland". They were merely refugees from the wars between Arab countries and Israel--rfugess that the ARab countries never cared about except as a political tool against Israel.


Yes, Dan is right. President Obama has gone so far off of the beam that we are all in deep trouble--both domestically and in this basurd "can't we all get along" approach to foreign policy. If even "nice guy" Dan can be driven to "extremes" by this, byou know it is really getting bad. And it is.


Note what actually WORKED against the Soviet Union. Wa it the Camelot leftists of JFK? Nope. Was it the "born again" leftism of Jimmy Carter? Nope. Carter left office with hostages in Iran being released because of fear of Ronald Reagan? Was it the Big Government leftisem of LBJ, and the Democrats who got us inton Vietnam without any clue as to what they would do after they got into that war? Nope. It was RONALD REAGAN who defeated the Soviet Union. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall." President Obama's speech is a far cry from that speech, or even JFK's "I am a Berliner.". There is no HINT of American "values" in Obama's speech. Ronald Reagan DEFEATED the Soviet Union by standing up for American values.


I think it is significant that when I think of something I never thought I would see in my lifetime, I think of the FALL of the Soviet Union. I think of a unified Germany, and FREE Eastern Eurpose (including even the old states driectly adjacent to Russia such as the former Latvia, Estonia, and LIthuania).


What do leftists like Bob Chieffer think of when they think of something that they never expected to see? Well they may think of a black President, for which there is some excuse. But it is obvious, because he told us so today, that such a mainstream "Journalist" thinks of mere speeches like that of President Obama today which ABANDON the idea of American values being special--ABANDON the idea of freedom. This is "candor" to mainstream "journalists"--acknowledging that American values have no claim to being right, and that America was probably a negative force in the world before Obama (something those people of Eastern Europe might dispute).


Nope. Dan is absolutely right. We are in real trouble here. The WORLD is in real trouble here.