In the Arab-Islamic world, Barack Obama has come down to earth.
He has not made the world anew, history did not bend to his will, the Indians and Pakistanis have been told that the matter of Kashmir is theirs to resolve, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the same intractable clash of two irreconcilable nationalisms, and the theocrats in Iran have not “unclenched their fist,” nor have they abandoned their nuclear quest.
There is little Mr. Obama can do about this disenchantment. He can’t journey to Turkey to tell its Islamist leaders and political class that a decade of anti-American scapegoating is all forgiven and was the product of American policies—he has already done that. He can’t journey to Cairo to tell the fabled “Arab street” that the Iraq war was a wasted war of choice, and that America earned the malice that came its way from Arab lands—he has already done that as well. He can’t tell Muslims that America is not at war with Islam—he, like his predecessor, has said that time and again.
It was the norm for American liberalism during the Bush years to brandish the Pew Global Attitudes survey that told of America’s decline in the eyes of foreign nations. Foreigners were saying what the liberals wanted said.
Now those surveys of 2009 bring findings from the world of Islam that confirm that the animus toward America has not been radically changed by the ascendancy of Mr. Obama.
The world-wide apology tour was less a diplomatic failure than an ontological one, a kind of global category error. It starts with the assumption that everyone everywhere is pretty much the same as everyone else, and that all cultures are inherently equal. Or if they are not, then they cannot be objectively differentiated and those that have tried to do so have made mistakes that must be atoned for.
I disagree.
Sorry, what’s the picture of?
I can’t remember her name, but she was a bystander at the riots in Tehran and was assaulted by one of the Government’s thugs. She died as a result of her wounds.
“Ontological?” Haven’t seen that word in a while and had to get the dictionary out.
I’d have to say Obama’s failure was because of ignorance of the world and human nature. I’m guessing that’s what you mean. Ontology is a bit above the one’s paygrade, along with much else.
Neda. Her name was Neda Agha-Soltan.
And if you have about 40 minutes to spend doing some visual research this is more than worth watching.
Thanx! Her name simply escaped me.
Ughh …That is a ghastly picture of a pretty young woman being murdered by a bunch of bullies. What fascinates me is that the feminists in this country willfully ignore the fact that this is happening in the Mid East regularly, whether it is honor killing, intrafamily ‘discipline,’ or just plain lethal crankiness of strangers toward other strangers, as long as they are women. How long are American liberal women going to continue the “la-la-la I’m not listening” routine?
Marianne
Marianne
The answer is simple. They. are. only. interested. in. themselves. If it doesn’t get them something by the governmental use of force at someone else’s expense they don’t care. And then they wrap themselves in the flag of selflessness, most of them too dumb to recognize the irony, the rest too cynical to care beyond the recruiting and motivational effect of the Sorelian myth.
With any luck he will be apologizing to the wife and kids about having to move after only 4 years.
Muslim countries don’t like us yet? Does this mean that the oceans aren’t going to go down and the earth wont heal itself?
That’s awful. Thanks for the tag.
Nobody left to apologize to? Dream on. Obama is just getting started. There is always South & Central America and the Caribbean with a long history of gringo imperialism to be ashamed of. Obama is saving those apology tours for long winter days in the US…
Now who is being the cynic, Virgil?
But see how eurocentric you all are being? Here you are going on, projecting WESTERN EUROPEAN mores and values on other cultures. We need to be TOLERANT of all cultures, and celebrate the DIVERSITY, and INCUDE them gladly and with open minds and hearts into our closed-minded and bigoted and obviously EEEE-vvvilll society.
(lordy, I have spent too many years too close to Marin County)
VX get a bit cynical when the Rum stash runs low. It’s like the old saw from college “reality is a state of mind caused by alcohol deprivation.”
Personally, I’ve been thinking (I know that’s a very dangerous pursuit, but I do it occasionally totally disregarding the danger) of a plan to straighten things out a bit.
First, we keep VX sober.
Second, we chip in and get him an F-4.
Third we buy him some explosive ordnance and turn him loose.
If nothing else, it will brighten his day and keep him from making his wife’s life any more difficult than it already is. He might even get mad about the loss of his hooch and take it out on a few of the country’s enemies.
That brings to mind a sad, sad day. Way back in 1862.
Farewell to Grog
(Caspar Schenk)
Come, messmates pass the bottle round
Our time is short, remember,
For our grog must stop and our spirits drop
On the first day of September
cho: For tonight we’ll merry, merry be
For tonight we’ll merry, merry be
For tonight we’ll merry, merry be
Tomorrow we’ll be sober.
Farewell old rye, ’tis a sad, sad word,
But alas! It must be spoken,
The ruby cup must be given up,
And the demijohn be broken.
Jack’s happy days will soon be gone,
To return again, oh never!
For they’ve raised his pay five cents a day
But stopped his grog forever.
Yet memory oft’ will backward turn,
And dwell with fondness partial,
On the days when gin was not a sin,
Nor cocktails brought court-martial.
(Bo’s'n-mates pipe “All Hands Splice the Main Brace)
All hands to split the main brace, call,
But split it now in sorrow,
For the spirit-room key will be laid away
Forever, on tomorrow.
Note: on September 1, 1862 the United States Navy discontinued
regular liquor rations. This was reportedly composed on August
31.
RG
see http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiFARWLGRG;ttFARWLGRG.html for the notation
Count me in for “Project Virgil”.
Obviously the gentlemen & ladies that visit this-here blog live in an alternate universe, not the one whose phase space begins with dimension “O” and ends with dimension “A”.
Just remember, “What we got here is… failure to communicate… You run one time, you got yourself a set of chains. You run twice you got yourself two sets. You ain’t gonna need no third set, ’cause you gonna get your mind right. “
I didn’t know you had multiple personalities! So THAT’s where old Strother went!
Sorry VX, you lost me on the Strother ref. Care to explain?
Paul Newman movie: Cool Hand Luke.