The Prophet of Islam teaches us to be kind to all people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. “You shall not win the hearts of men with your money, but with kind manners you can,” he said.
Yet, symbolism alone is not enough, and Muslims in general had bitter memories of symbolic gestures coming from western powers.
Two centuries ago, Napoleon , who had just invaded Egypt, sought to endear himself to ordinary Egyptians. He issued proclamations casting himself as a great liberator of the people from Mamluk oppression, and praising the precepts of Islam.
The above is from Khalid Amayreh's "Muslims want actions, not words, from Obama" (Watan) while at Al Jazeera, Rob Reynolds observed:
Another thing struck me as distinctly political: Obama's constant references to his Muslim background, boyhood days in Indonesia, and frequent citations from the Quran sounded a bit odd coming from a man who made strenuous efforts to ignore those aspects of his autobiography in the 2008 campaign for the White House.
In fact, Obama's campaign attacked critics who insisted on using his middle name; now, here was Barack Hussein Obama on stage in Cairo dropping a "shukran" (Arabic for "thank you" here) and an "assalaamu alaikum" (peace be unto you) there.
Aluf Been (Haaratz) zooms in on the issue of Palestine to point out:
The United States has objected to the settlements since 1967, but its position has changed. The Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations stated that the settlements were illegal. Since the Reagan administration (1981), the U.S. has called the settlements "an obstacle to peace" without referring to their lawfulness. Former president George W. Bush agreed to Israeli construction in the large settlement blocs in exchange for Israel evacuating the settlers from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, and accepting the "two-state solution."
He goes on that Bully Boy Bush stated he wanted an end to "the occupation that began in 1967" -- translation, as with Barack First Ever To Want To Ban Nukes!, it turns out Barack's statements were similar to . . . oh, every other president in the US.
We're focusing on the bad speech because there were two e-mailing the public account insisting I was wrong about Barry O's speech, and golly, he mentioned Muslims in American later on. I read the entire speech. The sections the two e-mailers are pointing two are the sections which play like Muslims aren't Americans and you have to wonder why that is? You have to wonder why Barry O went to another country and starts talking about Muslims being persecuted in the US (that's what he's saying and his audience grapsed that). Muslism, by Barack's structure in the speech, are under attack in the US. And if you can't grasp it, you're not paying attention because what they supposedly had to sue for (I'm aware of no such lawsuits with the exception of a woman in a burqa suing the DMV in Florida) goes to the core of the culture he was attempting to speak to.
Now they may or may not be under attack in the US. I think very few could argue that they weren't under attack following 2001 to well into 2003. Under direct attack. 2004 being an election year and a lot of big money from some Muslims having gone to the GOP meant it had to be toned down a bit. But Muslims have been in the US since long before 9-11. Muslims are Americans and instead of making that statement -- one you could, for example, very easily hear Jimmy Carter make -- Barry did his usual "I'm so special dance! Love me, love me!" No. You go overseas as the president then you're representing the US and these little efforts of his to make himself come off better while spitting on the country are not playing well. His personal popularity does not help the US. When Bully Boy Bush was deservedly detested around the world, most people were smart enough to draw a line between Bush and the American people. It works both ways.
So when he goes on a trip and says, as he did on his last Not So Excellent Adventure, don't-blame-me-I-was-just-a-kid, he may get a laugh but any smart student of international relations grasps very quickly that he's reinforcing stereotypes of the US to advance himself -- as different from -- and other than -- the US.
We could talk about how he wanted to appear to Western audiences as if he was defending women's rights. He was doing no such thing and the listeners were damn well aware of it. As was Barry who grew up in a Muslim country -- and now that he brags about that, presumably we can all note it without a bunch of childish name calling?
He went to a culture that is seen as sexist and he what? Glorified the drunken father who already had one wife before he hooked up with Barack's mother (no, they were not legally married the US does not recognize bigamy). He glorified the father who abandoned him. The drunkard who died broke and a public embarrassment. (The one he once lied and swore was "a goat herder".) The mother who raised him for most of his childhood? The mother who raised his half-sister? The mother who accomplished something with her life?
She was no where to be found.
Now when he wanted to get votes from White voters, he couldn't stop using Ann. And in the primaries, the harder the campaign thought that would be, the more they ran the Ann-died-of-cancer commercials which showed White Ann lifting Barry in the air and never made any mention of his father. It was a lot like his going to Kansas while running for the president. He'd never felt the need to see Kansas before. After his father was dead for some time, Barack decided to see Kenya and off he went. But there he was telling the press Kansas was his home to him and blah, blah, blah. When Jeremiah Wright's craziness got to be too much, it was time for Barack to bring up "my White grandmother."
He's the changeling. And he'll cater to whatever audience. That's well and good if he's just a motivational speaker but he's the president of the United States and it's past time that he grasped he represent the country when he goes overseas. He's not supposed to be advancing himself by degrading the country. Crap like ha-ha-don't-blame-me-I-wasn't-born would be boorish to most from B-list male celebrity in Cannes. Coming from the president of the United States, it's insulting.
Barack never learned how to work with others. He never learned how to share the spotlight. He never learned not to be caught pouting when someone else captured the spotlight (which is why there are so many photos from the last year and half that people can point to and laugh at).
Who is Barack Hussein Obama? The world still doesn't know and the main reason for that is because Barack Obama doesn't know who he is. That's the danger of being a changeling. You can end up tricking even yourself and he lost his handle on himself at 15 and has never regained it. Sadly, this is who the bulk of Americans who voted chose to put into the White House.
If the alleged left 'leaders' had any brains, they'd start denying him love and praise because his vanity is possibly the only ammunition the left has to use against him as he proceeds to continue all of Bully Boy Bush's wars and then some.
He wants credit for what he once termed the 'oikey-doke'. He tossed out a few bland words about women's rights (that some pigs online -- I'm referring to the over 60 set, male contingent) thought were amazing. They were a highly watered down version of what Hillary said over a decade ago. But by glorifying the father, as he did, and denying the mother, as he did, he fed right into the sexist aspect of the culture his cheerleaders insist he was calling out. Barry knew what he was doing.
"That is why we will honor our agreement with Iraq's democratically-elected government to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by July, and to remove all our troops from Iraq by 2012," he declared. By the end of June, Barry, all US forces are supposed to be out of Iraqi cities and major towns. But we know that they won't be. They won't be out of Mosul (they'll be on the bordering base), they won't be out of Baghdad and they may not be out of Tikrit. In addition, AP reports today that they're hoping to keep "about 14 joint facilities [open] . . . after the deadline."
"Pretty lies, just pretty lies," as Joni Mitchell once sang ("The Last Time I Saw Richard," Blue). And not touched on by anyone . . . yet . . . is that it was basically the Jeremiah Wright speech he gave last year. The one where he couldn't turn his back on Wright. Not the speech weeks later where he could turn his back on Wright. It was that same speech where he equated things that were not equal (there is no equal to the racism against African-Americans in the US historically with any thing aimed at the White culture in the US during the same period). He did the same thing in his Cairo speech and a few grasp that but don't grasp that it's the false equation or that it's the same equation he's offered in every damn speech -- it was also present in his 2004 DNC speech. If you're historically ignorant and won over by pretty words with no meaning, you'd think someone wrote an amazing speech.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4303. Tonight? 4309.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
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