Barack Obama’s Massive Middle East Mea Culpa
Nile Gardiner /
Dr. Nile Gardiner is the Director of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Today he commented on President Obama’s speech in Cairo, Egypt for the Daily Telegraph. Below is his commentary in its entirety:
It’s never easy delivering a landmark speech before a foreign audience, and a potentially hostile one at that. Barack Obama gave a 56-minute address before a Muslim audience in Cairo that was well received and drew a standing ovation. He made some good points about the need for greater religious tolerance on the part of governments in the Middle East, and more respect for women’s rights, points that President Bush made numerous times when he was president.
The speech was however highly problematic in many ways, and a continuation of the theme of atoning for America’s past. Here are some of the key negative points in his speech that will backfire on both the President and the United States.
- Obama attacked the decision to go to war in Iraq – “a war of choice” – it “reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible” etc, without even mentioning the fact Saddam Hussein was failing to comply with several Security Council resolutions. This was completely gratuitous, wrong and unnecessary. There are still over 100,000 American troops fighting in Iraq, and this kind of message will only serve to undermine morale. As President, Obama should have paid tribute to his own soldiers who are putting their lives on the line everyday in a war against Al-Qaeda-backed insurgents. The United States does not need to apologise for removing a brutal dictator from power and liberating over 20 million Muslims from tyranny. (more…)