What did Romney Say: and when did he say it?
9:12 am in American economy, assassination of our ambassador, carteresque foreign policy, cold blooded murder, domestic politics, incompetence, islamic world, mainstream media, mea culpa, millions of dependent americans, mitt romney, muslim world, national tv, obama is an incompetent president, obama outreach to the muslim world, our constitutional democratic republic, outrages, repudiation of obama’s “reach out policy", romney was inappropriate, tepid response, timing of romney’s correct statement, Views by Jerrold Sobel
To the millions of dependent Americans on the far left none of this matters. They would vote for this President even if he committed armed robbery on national TV. And to others, Obama is just a cool guy. Regrettably, being cool doesn’t make up for a defunct, Carteresque foreign policy conducted with the same success the President has had with the American economy.
To some of us having suffered through 3 1/2 of years of abject incompetence, it seems like 300 years but in reality it’s only been a short while since our loquacious leader stood up in Cairo and spoke eloquently about the shared values of Islam and our constitution. His mea culpa and outreach to the Muslim world in the words of his mentor, Rev. Wright, “has come home to roost.”
The magnitude of what has happened and is still happening seems to play trite in the mainstream media so engulfed in domestic politics, more concerned with denigrating Romney than the invasion of our territory and the cold blooded murder of our citizens followed by the President’s tepid response.
Whether the media is on the left, right, center, or somewhere in between, the anti-American riots throughout the Islamic world should be an outrage to all Americans and a repudiation of Obama’s “reach out policy.” Yet Romney was and still is the focus of CBS, MSNBC, The New York Times, and others running the same slant, “Romney was inappropriate,” “his timing was terrible,” he didn’t have all the facts,” and blah, blah, blah, blah.
Obfuscation plain and simple. The mainstream media seeks to hide Obama’s 2009 outreach policy to the Muslim world proclaimed in his mea culpa speech. The one in which he denigrated his own country, lauding the accomplishments of Islam and the putative common values shared between our constitutional, democratic republic and their theocratic, repressive regimes. How’s that policy working out as the average Mohammad (forgive me, is it still legal to use that name?) is burning down our consulate and using our flag for toilet paper. Somebody should drop a note to Chris Matthews and tell him, this is the real story, not Romney.
The next insult to your intelligence now being pushed by our dear leader is that the assassination of our Ambassador was spontaneous. That makes about as much sense as the film ostensibly the root of these riots winning an Academy Award.
On this past Sunday talk shows U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice asked you to believe: millions of psychos were going along, living peaceful lives, thankful the United States helped rid them of their dictators, but once hearing about this film, went into their closets, grabbed a couple of grenade launchers, an AK-47 or two, and spontaneously showed up the U.S. consulate to kill our people. The only thing more ludicrous than this premise is the editorial silence at the aforementioned news outlets.
The fact the Libyan Government arrested 50 Al-Qaeda operatives suspected of involvement in the murders and publicly stated the attack was premeditated doesn’t seem to carry weight with these venues; Romney’s the story. The last thing they wish to do is expose the American people to the abject failure of this Administration’s Middle Eastern foreign policy. By attributing these riots to the film, Obama has vainly tried to cloak the endemic hatred of our country by the Muslim world. It also saves him from admitting what is obviously clear, or should be. His Muslim approach so proudly espoused in Cairo just a few years ago has come back to bite him. How ironic the validation of this failure has emanated in the same city in which it began.
To top it all, on the very day our Ambassador and his colleagues were brutalized, murdered, then dragged through the streets of Benghazi, President Obama condemned the attacks, said he’d seek justice, then morphed into candidate Obama and got back on the stump. It’s most reasonable to assume, if President Bush or any Republican had done the same he would have been skewered by the press. Incomprehensibly but not unexpectedly, the major emphasis of the networks and press on this inglorious day was once again, the timing of Romney’s remarks.
None of them except the liberal punching bag, FOX news has questioned the Administration’s absurd assertion that this preposterous film was the cause of such widespread hatred of America throughout the Islamic world. None of them have had the moxie to stand up and say these barbarians killing our people, invading our territory, and desecrating our flag are endemically opposed to who we are, our way of life, everything we stand for, and the freedoms we enjoy. To apologize to them is to embolden them. It’s they that should be apologizing to us. That’s the message these pusillanimous ninnies should be sending to the Muslim world; a message long overdo. A message which should have been sent during the Salman Rushdie threats, the Van Gogh assassination in Holland, and one that should be sent right now.
The media and the President which they collude with fail to recognize contriteness, humility, and appeasement are seen as weaknesses to these hateful, fanatical people waging religious war against us. Unfortunately, Obama has never wavered from this defunct approach since the day he took office, now he’s reaping the results.
Likewise, if he intentionally sought to sabotage American foreign policy in this region he could not have done more than: fail to support the 2009-10 peoples revolution in Iran; support the overthrow of a crazy but politically benign Qadaffi; support the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, a 30 year American ally that kept the peace in the region, protecting both our assets and people. For his efforts Obama is now forced to deal with an increasingly bellicose Muslim Brotherhood; the oldest, of all Islamic terrorist organizations.
In Libya, instead of 1 nut job to contend with there are now countless terrorist groups each far more powerful than the nascent central government. But these failures pale in consequence to the Iranian debacle. These seem just minor details to left wing media outlets which opt to shill rather than report.
Reaching out to the Iranians over the past 4 years has also gotten the President far. Once recognizing who they were dealing with the Ayatollahs have confidently kept enriching Uranium. What incentive is there for them not to? Other than ineffective sanctions which hurt no one other than their people, the cabal of fanatical Ayatollahs see no downside as they hurdle toward the bomb. In their distorted minds this is jihad, a religious, sanctioned undertaking. Economic sanctions to madmen willing to risk Armageddon for regional hegemony doesn’t stand much of a chance to succeed.
So on and on it goes. The Iranians duping the President into more time by playing a rope a dope game of meaningless nuclear conferences in Baghdad, Moscow, and Istanbul. What has it accomplished? If you answered nothing, you’re correct.
There are other options short of war. Obama might consider trying to thwart their weapon development by heeding the advice of his good friend Benjamin Netanyahu, avoiding a war by unambiguously admonishing Iranian leadership with an outlined set of parameters not to be crossed. However, that would take affirmative leadership which Obama has never shown in foreign policy. If anything his presidency has exacerbated relations with friends and foes alike.
Speaking of strains. The pain this Administration’s Middle Eastern policy has caused Israel is beyond the scope of this essay except to say it’s in line with the rest of the Middle East, Africa, and even Asia: Syria; Afghanistan; Pakistan; Iraq; and even Turkey, once a staunch U.S. ally has moved into the Islamist camp on this President’s watch.
So to the media, in this time of crisis, the Romney bit is a sideshow, a recognizable obfuscation. What he said or the timing of his statement is trite in comparison to the explosive situation we find ourselves in today. Once again, Romney is not President, It’s time the one that is show some leadership during his first real crisis. And it’s also time the 4th Estate start asking him to do so.
During his term in office, President Obama seeking “Hope and Change” succeeded in a very difficult task. He has managed to distance the U.S. from its ally Israel while simultaneously stirring more anti-American passions in the Muslim world than his favorite scapegoat President Bush ever did. Don’t believe me? Travel to one of these countries, identify yourself as an American and ask an angry Muslim tearing up your flag for his opinion.
