Posted by
ApolloSpeaks on Sunday, January 10, 2010 12:34:39 PM
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at Peterson Institute for International Economics about poverty causing terrorism, a pet idea of the Left and the governing idea of the Obama administration.
Commenting on Obama's Christmas Day, Gitmo Bay, Ft. Hood and other leadership disasters Rudy Guilliani on Friday's Morning Joe said that President 44 had spent his first year in office trying to distinguish himself from his ["incompetent"] predecessor; trying to define himself against ["the dangerous, warmongering"] Bush and Cheney; trying to become the anti-Bush and anti-Cheney in national security and in fighting the war on terror. But instead of following Bush and Cheney where they did right and served this country well, and avoiding the mistakes where they served us ill, Obama has gone in the opposite direction ditching many of the things that kept us safe (like EITs) and making terrible life threatening blunders inconceivable for the two men that he hates (like prosecuting CIA officers for doing what was needed to save American lives).
But unfortunately for America the lessons of Ft. Hood and Christmas Day have been wasted on Obama as he has learned little or nothing about what's needed in a leader to keep our nation safe in wartime. Indeed, the Obama of last Thursday's speech who finally showed a pulse of anger and grudgingly admitted there was a War on Terror (against al Qaida) is little changed from the Obama of last January and the 08 campaign. For his self-defeating PC views on the causes of radical Islam remain the same and is putting the nation in harm's way. Let me explain.
*I believe it was Churchchill who said: Relentlessness in a leader is the greatest weapon of war.
**See Postscript II
Obama holds the politically correct view that the originating cause of radical Islam's war to the death against America and the West is not Islam; he believes that the killing of innocent civilians in New York, London and Madrid cannot be understood within the context of this religion. Islam for Obama, the Islam that he praised and swore to defend in his Cairo speech against bigotry, is a religion of freedom, progress and peace compatible with liberalism*; a religion so he believes in its pure, spiritual undistorted form is democratic at its core and in no way responsible for 9/11, Ft. Hood and the botched Christmas Day attack. That Bin Ladin, Nidal Hasan and Abdulmatallab are Moslems is merely incidental and explains very little about their homicidal cause. That Islam's cruel founder was a violent jihadist killing machine and monster of religious intolerance and hate; that he was a mass murdering terrorist thug who routinely killed and butchered unbelievers for the glory of his faith is of little value in understanding the roots of Islamic terror today. That was then and now is now. In 1400 years Islam has evolved so Obama believes as its community has collapsed from a great world power into powerlessness. Indeed, to understand the causes of jihad in our age, the violent struggle against the West and USA, we must turn to a speech that Hillary Clinton recently gave:
"We cannot stop terrorism or defeat the ideologies of violent extremism when hundreds of millions of young people see a future with no jobs, no hope, and no way to catch up to the developed world," said the Secretary of State (
see).
*Meaning Western liberal values and ideals.
These were not just Hillary's words; she was speaking on behalf of her leftist administration and its idealistic leader who as senator sponsored S 2433*: The Global Poverty Act**; a bill calling for the redistribution of American wealth to the tune of $900 billion to cut extreme world poverty in half by 2015 (
see). And for the sake of peace the poverty Obama wants mostly to cut is the poverty plaguing Islam.
*HR 2639 in the House.
**Also called the Global Poverty Tax.
In other words, Obama and Hillary believe that the cause of radical Islam masks a quest for economic justice on behalf of the world's Moslem poor. The hundreds and millions of believers who live in squalor, hunger, ignorance and disease is jihad's underlying cause; the driving force behind the attacks upon our soldiers and civilians at home and abroad. And to bring this war to a victorious close we must pay through the nose and benefit these poor or buy them off-like the Romans did the barbarians before they were destroyed. For Obama, Hillary and the Left this is Gospel and beyond debate: the pathlogical inequalities in wealth is the root cause of this war. Ask them what part Islam plays in keeping Moslems poor and you're ignored; for Islam in their eyes is holy, good and pure.
Indeed, for Obama and the Left Bush and Cheney's War on Terror was confused, ill conceived and wrong from the start. They believe that invading countries and killing Moslems was the wrong way to go for ending the scourge of Islamic terror, keeping jihad from our shores and maintaining good relations with Islam. On the contrary, these operations were counterproductive for national security; they brought more recruits into the terrorists' fold and alienated millions of Moslems who saw Iraq and Afghanistan as an attack on their traditions, faith and cultural norms. 'Just look at the resurgence of the Taliban in poor Afghanistan,' say the Left. 'Look how far they've come since Operation Enduring Freedom drove them from power in 2001.' 'And look at al Qaida in Arabia and Yemen and the power that they wield in attracting and training recruits from afar.' Indeed, Bush's impressive record of keeping the homeland safe for seven years was deceptive hiding the fact that Moslem poverty had barely changed during that time breeding more terrorists like flies.
Bush and Cheney mistook the symptoms for the disease believing that the sickness was an evil ideology of Islamic supremacy seeking world domination when it grew from the sickness of poverty, inequality and economic injustice. Blinded by their love of war Bush and Cheney failed to see the link between Jihad and poverty; failed to see that poverty not the thirst for power was the mother of Al Qaida and Islamic terror.
In other words, to win the war against bin Ladin, the Taliban and our other Moslem foes, Bush's Global War on Terror must undergo a transformation into a Global War on Poverty and mostly Moslem poverty-hence the Global Poverty Act and the redistribution schemes at Copenhagen to transfer wealth via the corrupt UN from have to have not nations.
Obama, Hillary and the Left believe that America cannot live for itself alone greedily pursuing its national interests, acquiring more of the planet's treasure, gold and riches, and hope to win the hearts and minds of Moslems and end this war. War without end is the price we must pay for the world's Islamic poor.
When D*ck Cheney accused Obama "of trying to pretend that we're not at war" he was right in so far as the Global War on Terror for Obama is not the real war. The real war for him is the Global War on Poverty which alone can end the war against this country and bring peace.
In other words, the new counterterrorism fight that Obama announced on Thursday is a sham like his job summit in Washington and townhall meetings on healthcare. Underlying the announcement was not the will and resolve to defeat the enemy and win the war in the spirit of Bush and Cheney. On the contrary, beneath Obama's tough sounding words and spurt of anger was an undercurrent of pessimism verging on defeatism; the pessimistic and almost defeatist view that the war against Al Qaida and radical Islam is unwinnable; that missiles, bullets, drones and bombs cannot defeat them; that unless America and the West transfer trillions of dollars to Islamic lands and defeat Moslem poverty it means centuries of jihad, war without end*.
*In Obama's mind the War on Terror is unwinnable because Moslem poverty at this time in history is incurable. Why? Because bankrupt America doesn't have the bucks to fight a War on Moslem Poverty. As long as Obama believes that poverty causes jihad and that the War on Terror is unwinnable because Moslem poverty is incurable he could never be an effective wartime leader; he could never rise to the level of a Lincoln, FDR or a George Bush all of whom waged war on the basis that THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR VICTORY!.
This explains the absence of the word VICTORY from Obama's war vocabulary; it explains the coolness, detachment and aloofness he often shows when speaking about the war and security issues. Apart from an end to Moslem ignorance and squalor Obama doesn't believe in any kind of triumph. The only war worth waging for Obama and the Left is the war on poverty and inequality both domestically and globally through the massive redistribution of wealth. Social transformation on a national and global scale, not war against Moslems fighting for their fair share, is Obama's fight and cause.
In short, we are a nation at war without a warrior at the helm committed to victory; without a national security leader with the iron will to defeat the enemy and defend the homeland from aggression. There will be hell to pay for this absence of leadership as history tells. God help us all.
Postscript I: Is Poverty the Cause of Terrorism?
Is Hillary Clinton right: that the massive poverty and hopelessness endemic to the Moslem world is the principle cause and catalyst for anti-US jihad? Was the leveling of the Twin Towers-symbols of American power, wealth and free enterprise-driven by Moslem destitution avenging itself on US gluttony and greed? Let me answer the question with a question: does Islam have a monopoly on poverty? Are the only poor, illiterate, backward people on this planet Moslem? Of course not. Clinton's theory is as false as man made global warming and just as insidious as it dooms us to waste billions overseas in foreign aid as did LBJ on his domestic War on Poverty which was a social catastrophe for inner city Blacks. Consider this:
Though hundreds and millions of mainland Chinese live in misery where are the anti-US Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist terrorists attacking our nation? Though hundreds and millions of Indians live no better where are the anti-US Hindu, Sikh and Vedanta terrorists boarding US planes with panty bombs? And what about the millions of poor Catholic South Americans, Bolivians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, etc., where are the terrorists for Christ crossing our borders and killing us? Need I go on? If poverty isn't the cause of Islamic terror then that leaves Islam as the cause.
Postscript II: Defender of Islam and Un-American
We have a man in the White House who is more impassioned about defending the honor of Islam from stereotypes and bigotry than he is about the security of his country from Islamic inspired, Koran driven, Sharia justified terror. When did Obama give a heartfelt speech praising America and its achievements like he did in Cairo for Islam? Where's his speech about our contributions to the progress of civilization which did more for humanity in 233 years than Islam in 14 centuries? Should we become more like the Islamic world? Or that world more like us?* Who has the better values and ideals? Where's the mass migration from this country to the Middle East? Moslems are coming here, we're not moving there. Where's the comparison?
*In my view Obama believes that America must become more Islamic if there's to be peace with Islam (see).
According to Obama's Cairo speech there is nothing wrong with Islam and everything wrong with its critics whose grievances about its martial theology and brutal history are ridiculed and dismissed as right wing, fear driven, anti-Moslem bigotry. No! Islam is fine it's America that's wrong; we are the sick ones who need fixing and change*-fundamental, foundational, top to bottom radical change. This is not Americanism. This is not patriotism. This is insanity: the deadly ideology of political correctness that always blames America first for every problem in the world. The ideology that burdens to tears the most un-American and demoralizing president in our history. The ideology of a weak and foolish man with a politically correct fantasy of Islam and the world that is damaging our country and will be his undoing in the end (
see)
.
*As in the Cold War when America was blamed by the Left for the conflict which could be solved by a nuclear freeeze, unilateral disarmament or surrender.