Obama isn’t much of a defender of the United States in word or deed. He prefers to stand up for the good name of Islam. When it comes to the defense of Islam, he’s got his heart is in it.
-Scott Johnson: “Obama’s Heart”, at Power Line
26 thoughts on “Quote of the Day”
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Sounds right to me.
Yep.
For someone who wants to apologize for Islam, Obama’s ratings are not very good in the Muslim world, not much different than Bush’s were.
You can only drone bomb so many collateral damage-innocents and retain high favorable ratings. He helps Saudi decimate Yemen (see Dan Larison’s excellent posts
on subject) yet AQ and ISIS are not fond of the House of Saud. Worse, he replenishes Israel’s Iron Dome and refuses to criticize (as did even Sanders)
Israel’s attack on Gaza. Not good for ratings in the Islamic world. And can’t fail to mention, polls of Afghanis show they hold US troops in a worse light than the Taliban.
You people need to realize it all devolves to “Invade the world, invite the world”— the common refrain of neocon/neolib interventionism which has
American imperialism in the role of making ’em love capitalism, Israel and accepting the gay lifestyle as a valid form of expression—even if it kills
Americans…there and here….
The answer? America First.
Cut off Israel, get out of the Mideast and the Mideast outta here.
“Cut off Israel, get out of the Mideast and the Mideast outta here.
The one democracy in the middle east. Thanks. I know it is hard to understand but Israel does do good things for us.
Read about the mean IQ of Ashkenazi Jews and think about the mean IQ of Arabs.
I agree with getting out of the middle east but Israel is a cat’s paw we could use to if necessary.
The Saudis are the faithless ally. We don’t need them anymore.
Netanyahu took a chance supporting Romney in 2012 and Israel is paying for it.
I would wish that this were an exaggeration, a fevered fuming of the radical right. But it actually does line up with the facts moderately well, doesn’t it? It is true that few in the Islamic world love him for it. It is all part of his narcissistic belief that he bridges many cultures: black and white, Christian and Muslim, American and internationalist, socialist and free marketer, Ivy league and bootstrap. In truth, he is not all, but none.
The answer? America First.
That didn’t work out so well the first time around.
Mike K. – Israel has been a huge expense and burden for the US. We would be far better off today if we had never gotten involved in the endless ethnic conflicts of the Middle East. This is what people like George Marshall and George Kennan advised back in 1948. If only we had followed their wise advice.
Israel is more secure, more prosperous, and stronger now than at any time in its modern history. It has a peace treaty with Jordan and Egypt, and those countries are stable because they finally decided to stop fighting Israel and join them. Israel also has an implicit “understandings” with the Gulf States. It also has very close relations with Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, India, and lately Russia. Israel’s economy is also strong with its high tech sector the most innovative in the world. It’s strong currency has been holding back exports lately which is a drag on growth, but that should change once the dollar starts rising again.
The bottom line is with Arabism now imploding and the Muslims inflamed in sectarian war, the world is very lucky to have a sea of stability in the Jewish state. It’s pretty clear now that the formation of Israel was one of the few good things to happen to the Middle East in the 20th century.
Grurray – None of this benefits the US. We would be better off to look after our own country. Since Israel is now so economically strong they presumably do not need the three billion US yearly foreign aid.
All the aid to Israel is now only military assistance. This military aid served a large part in helping establish the peace between Israel and Egypt and peace between Israel and Jordan. I would be fine with ending it just as soon as there is peace between Israel and the rest of its neighbors.
Our alliance with Israel directly benefits America. Israel gathers and shares intelligence with us about our enemies, Arab Islamic Jihadists.
Israeli research engineers work closely with Silicon Valley and have helped develop essential technologies such as Intel chips and PayPal. Israel is major hub for 3D printers with the largest companies in that sector either originating there or located there.
The American-Israeli alliance brought peace with Egypt which was an ally of the Soviet Union. This had a secondary effect of bringing the Gulf States in closer cooperation with us. This helped win the Cold War when the Saudis flooded the oil markets in the 80s.
That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure there are others. Unfortunately, there’s a world out there that exists outside the shores of the United States. To paraphrase the old saying, you may not be interested in the world out there but the world is interested in you.
I think we should end most foreign aid including to Israel. However, if we are going to subsidize anyone we could (and do) do a lot worse than Israel, which is an ally and a stable, open society in a strategically valuable area. Also, a lot of the cash we send to them as aid gets kicked back to us in the form of purchases from US defense contractors.
I agree with the Scott Johnson quote completely. I will also add that Ken Hoop, strangely, always seems to put propose what’s in Russia’s strategic interests while trying to convince us that those are really our interests. So odd that. I guess it pays the bills. And I assume he sees himself as a Russian patriot.
I’m reminded of that now famous satellite image of Israel and the rest of the surrounding area. I like the fact that it’s there, an act of defiance, if you will. We spend three billion a year on all kinds of crap.
I don’t know how much of the Middle East political landscape would’ve changed if the Obama administration and had a more proactive foreign-policy.
With Egypt and Mubarak he was either very ignorant or he was very sympathetic towards those Muslims whose group assassinated Anwar Sadat.
I lean towards the latter view.
Just amazing to watch.
Liabilities far outweigh assets.
http://www.wrmea.org/congress-u.s.-aid-to-israel/u.s.-aid-to-israel.html
If Israel is so stable why is it frenetic over the increasing success of BDS?
A country ruled by ethnic supremacist rabbinical law is a democracy?
A country which outlaws intermarriage between Arab and Jew is a democracy?
A country in which large areas of land cannot be owned by non-Jews is a democracy?
You gotta be kidding me.
As for America First not working out so well, read Buchanan’s “Unnecessary War.”
Supplement with “Infamy” by Toland. Robert Stinnet’s “Day of Deceit.”
Interfaith common law marriages have all the rights and protections as religiously sanctioned marriages except for matters involving military service. There’s a simple reason why marriage has to unfortunately be restricted Ken, and I think you’re smart enough to figure it out. I suggest by comparison you try to find an interfaith marriage between a Jew and Arab in Egypt or Jordan or Iraq. Good luck.
Liabilities far outweigh assets.
I’d say that’s true of you. That’s your last comment for this thread.
“If only we had followed their wise advice.”
Ken, if only Hitler had solved the problem for us. Is that it ?
Israel was kind of neutral in my view until one event that focused my attention like a laser beam
They rescued the hostages in Entebbe. That got my attention. I have been an Israel supporter ever since.
Compare that with Carter’s fiasco in the desert in 1980. I have a pretty good book about the effort called The Guys to Try. It’s pretty interesting. That was five years after the Democrats kicked away Vietnam.
Another good book worth reading is Guests of the Ayatollah, by Mark Bowden.
Interesting reading. Too bad Obama isn’t interested.
That’s “The Guts to Try.”
Sorry.
I retract my statement about his intelligence. He obviously isn’t smart enough to figure it out.
One more thing about “large areas of land cannot be owned by non-Jews”. That is true, but it’s also true that large areas of land cannot be owned by Jews either. The government owns 80% of the land and leases it to Jews and Arabs alike. It will never be sold to anyone.
I commented the other day about my Jewish friend who started by telling me how foolish it was that anyone would own an AR 15, then admitted that he was afraid of all guns and had never had one. Robert Avrech has republished his column about how he got interested in owning guns.
Because of the Orlando massacre, I am republishing my three-part series about the Los Angeles Riots of 1992 in which Karen and I and the children were trapped for several frightening hours in the tsunami of civic disorder. We were unarmed, helpless save for our wits. The police were conspicuously absent and the bad guy—frequently armed with heavy weapons—owned the streets.
It was a defining moment in my life.
I’m reposting this series as a cautionary tale because when IslamoNazis go on murderous rampages the left invariably blames the actions of evil men on hunks of steel, piously calling for ever more gun laws. The ultimate aim, of course, is to disarm law-abiding American citizens through mass gun confiscations.
I would wish that this were an exaggeration, a fevered fuming of the radical right.
I hear that sentiment often when truths are mentioned. It is a common human failing to wish truth be untruth, but in my experience people preferentially chose and live by untruth.
More on the psychology that kept the FBI from dealing with terrorists.
Significantly, the FBI concluded that Mateen’s workplace outbursts, which had a pronounced Islamic bent, were caused by “co-workers discriminating against him and teasing him because he was Muslim.”
It’s worth looking into what got the Bureau’s attention in the first place. While he had once been relaxed about gays, even hanging out with a drag queen, Mateen began to spout hatred at many groups, above all homosexuals. One co-worker at G4S, which employed Mateen from mid-2007, stated that he found the young man to be “unhinged and unstable,” regularly ranting about gays and minorities. The co-worker, who is now a police officer, filed several complaints with their employer about Mateen’s bizarre and troubling conduct—it included stalking and talking about killing people—but nothing was done because he was Muslim. According to the policeman, he left G4S in disgust once it became apparent that the firm was unwilling to take action against Mateen because of his religion.
And…
It’s hardly a big secret that President Obama from the moment he arrived at the White House put the kibosh on any discussion of radical Islam as a security problem, even in classified channels. In 2009, the administration banned politically loaded words like “jihad” even in classified Intelligence Community assessments discussing terrorism – a message that was received loud and clear in the counterterrorism community. Missing the next 9/11 could be survived, career-wise, while accusations of Islamophobia would not be with Barack Obama in the White House.
During Mr. Obama’s first term, there was a thorough purge of personnel in the Intelligence Community and the Defense Department who were unwilling to follow the new party line. People were mysteriously reassigned, contracts were suddenly cancelled, meetings were delayed never to be rescheduled. The message was obvious to counterterrorism professionals. As someone who has tried for years to walk a fine line on jihadism—we must be able to discuss political Islam and terrorism without stigmatizing all Muslims—I witnessed this happen, and it was tragically clear what the long-term consequences of this institutionalized unreality would be.
The failures are obvious. Boston, San Bernardino, Orlando, Next ?
As for Mateen’s continued employment despite his violent outbursts, we need to pan out, and examine the pc tyranny that rules society in general. I’ve been at a number of jobs (particularly those within the public sector) where individuals regularly ranted about women, gays, Jews, whites etc.
Only in a few instances were they moved or removed. And then, it would be on a technicality, sort of how they got Al Capone, via tax matters. I think this is key to understanding how this fifth column is so successful, and what will have to change going forward.
Obama rightly refuses to identify Islam as the cause of the Orlando massacre. Equating ISIS with Islam is dumb and is not going to help solve anything, anywhere.
The west set up Israel after WW2 as a homeland for the Jews after the terrible events of the Holocaust. The west invaded Iraq and has generally screwed that part of the world over again and again over oil.
ISIS is a reaction to these events, that have impacted Muslims so severely, since WW2, and before.
Blaming Obama for this is ridiculous.
Now some of you may know the great dislike I have for god and the huge amount pain, this entirely human concept, has caused throughout history, so I have no favorites.
I’ve not been in front of the television, but apparently this was on last evening:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/black-american-imam-msm-will-not-tell-you-about
This chapter of the saga should be examined much more closely. This character, not at all unique, should be easily recognized by those of us who have spent time in large U.S. cities. New York, Chicago, Detroit, etc.