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The Apology Tour: Will It Ever End?

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  • The Apology Tour: Will It Ever End?

    THE APOLOGY TOUR: WILL IT EVER END?

    Power Line
    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/04/023 262.php
    April 6 2009

    Earlier today, President Obama addressed the Parliament of Turkey. What
    made news were his positive references to Islam:

    "Let me say this as clearly as I can," Obama said. "The United States
    is not at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim
    world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of
    all faiths reject."

    This is, of course, indistinguishable from many similar pronouncements
    that were made by President Bush.

    What I want to focus on is Obama's continuing attack on his own
    country, unprecedented, to my knowledge, for a President on an overseas
    tour. Here are Obama's comments on his own country's history:

    An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve
    the security that comes from justice for all people. Robust minority
    rights let societies benefit from the full measure of contributions
    from all citizens.

    I say this as the President of a country that not too long ago made
    it hard for someone who looks like me to vote.

    This is untrue. A minority of states did "make it hard" for someone who
    "looks like Obama" to vote until "not long ago," but most did not,
    and the federal government certainly did not. There has never been
    a time when it was hard for people who look like Obama to vote here
    in Minnesota, for example.

    As we've seen before, Obama appears to betray a surprising lack of
    knowledge of American history. It seems that instead of actually
    having studied his own country's history, Obama has merely absorbed
    the ignorant, left-wing narrative that is peddled by Jeremiah Wright
    and others of his ilk. As a result, Obama not only confesses his
    country's sins overseas, he confesses wrongly.

    But it is precisely that capacity to change that enriches our
    countries. Every challenge that we face is more easily met if we tend
    to our own democratic foundation. This work is never over. That is why,
    in the United States, we recently ordered the prison at Guantanamo
    Bay closed, and prohibited -- without exception or equivocation --
    any use of torture.

    Torture has been illegal for a number of years, and President
    Bush insisted just as strongly as Obama that the U.S. does not
    torture. There was a legitimate debate about waterboarding, which does
    no physical injury, and which I do not believe constitutes torture. But
    according to press reports, only two or three top-ranking terrorists
    were waterboarded, none after 2003. And waterboarding has been
    banned by the U.S. military since 2006. So what was Obama's purpose
    in implying that until he came along, his own government was engaged
    in torturing prisoners? His speech was carried live by Al Jazeera
    and Al Arabiya, broadcast into countries where "torture" doesn't
    mean getting your face wet. Obama at least impliedly exaggerated the
    supposed sins of his predecessors and the "change" brought about by
    himself. Why? For what purpose? Isn't the campaign over?

    Another issue that confronts all democracies as they move to the
    future is how we deal with the past. The United States is still working
    through some of our own darker periods. Facing the Washington monument
    that I spoke of is a memorial to Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed
    those who were enslaved even after Washington led our Revolution. And
    our country still struggles with the legacy of our past treatment of
    Native Americans.

    Human endeavor is by its nature imperfect. History, unresolved,
    can be a heavy weight. Each country must work through its past.

    These words were a lead-in to Obama's comments on "the terrible events
    of 1915," i.e., what Obama himself has referred to as the "Armenian
    genocide." So what was the point of Obama's gratuitous reference to
    "our past treatment of Native Americans"? Did he mean to suggest that
    it was somehow equivalent to the Armenian genocide? If so, once again,
    he needs to be better educated about history. If not, why on earth
    is he throwing it into this part of his speech as a mea culpa?

    Obama's seemingly compulsive need to apologize to foreign audiences
    on behalf of the United States cannot be explained as a rational
    approach to diplomacy. As Paul suggested here, the roots of
    Obama's America-bashing seem to lie in a combination of ideology
    and psychology.

    Thank goodness he's coming home soon.
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