| 09/10/08 08:58 AM |
#609
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Amy Mitchell
Some more "light" political reading for your pleasure...I just received this and thought it interesting! Sorry it's a little long, but worth it I think!
Subject: FW: Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Obama
Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Obama (translation.....One Country, One People, One Obama)
William E. Saracino, Sac Union Columnist
Published: July 30, 2008 12:42
Deciding that destiny's child doesn't wait for such bothersome formalities as elections, B.H. Obama, with a total of three years national service under his belt, led a panting, salivating press corps on a tour that lacked only Air Force One for presidential trappings. The dictionary defines hubris as “overbearing pride, presumption and arrogance.†As the mainstream media has decreed that Barack's real middle name must never, ever be mentioned I guess we are free to assign one. "Hubris" fits the man perfectly.
The climax of B.H.O's excellent European adventure was a mass rally in Berlin. Now the Germans certainly know a thing or two about working themselves into adoring frenzies for charismatic orators who are thin on specifics but promise all will be well if the world will only follow them. Das Volk were appropriately hysterical for this latest incarnation of a spellbinding speaker promising that all problems can be solved by an all-powerful central government.
World Citizen?
Obama's actual speech was a mÃlange of clichÃs and intellectual pabulum. While admitting he is an American, he hastened to reassure the European one-worlders that he was speaking to them as â citizen of the world. In a move that no doubt pleased his self-described spiritual mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he wasted no time playing the race card, saying early in the speech that he looked different than other Americans who have spoken here. This will no doubt come as a surprise to newly minted caucasians Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice, both of whom have spoken in Berlin many times as U.S. secretary of state.
The most offensive aspect of his speech was the total ignorance of history he showed when describing how Berlin remained free during the Cold War. According to this citizen of the world, the Russians were kept out of West Berlin and the wall came down because there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one. What hogwash. The world most certainly did not stand as one to bring down the wall. In fact, about half of it actively worked for 40 years to make West Berliners slaves in the Communist gulag. Berlin remained free because of the fortitude of American presidents of both parties and America's armed might.
The OneThat Made a Difference
Obama mentions the 1948 Berlin airlift, but fails to mention that it succeeded in keeping the city free not because the world stood as one, but because President Harry Truman stood as one, overrode the objections of his State Department and said, "We are staying in Berlin, period", and then ordered the airlift. Almost a year later, after 277,000 mostly American flights bringing sustenance to the city, the Soviets backed down and opened the borders. Of course, Truman was called a warmonger, and accused of provoking Stalin by the media of the time.
Obama references John Kennedy's speech, but fails to mention that it was a scathing critique of Communism, having nothing whatever to do with the world standing as one. While "Ich bin ein Berliner" is the most remembered quote, the line that conveys the theme of the speech is, "To those who say we can work with and accommodate the Communists, I say let them come to Berlin and see this wall". Kennedy, not the world, stood as one for freedom and for that he was (of course) accused by the usual suspects of being a warmonger and needlessly provocative toward Khrushchev.
Being a good liberal, Obama did not directly reference Ronald Reagan's famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall", except to insult its memory by saying the wall came down because (you guessed it) the world stood as one. In fact, the wall came down because Reagan's labeling of the Soviets as the "evil empire" encouraged dissidents behind that wall to continue their struggle to be free. The wall came down because Reagan's defense build-up bankrupted the Soviets so much that they were unsure of their military's ability to put down widespread rebellion among their east European vassal states. The wall came down because of Ronald Reagan's moral courage. And oh yes, Reagan was called a warmonger and provocative at the time.
Prepare for the Descent
Obama's worldview as expressed in Berlin is much closer to the whining, hand wringing critics of Truman, Kennedy and Reagan than it is to the views of these three stalwarts of freedom. Obama's response to evil in the world is not "We are staying in Berlin, period", "Ich bin ein Berliner", or "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall". His response is "everybody hold hands and sing Kumbaya, cuz golly gee if the world will only "act as one", all our troubles and all the bad guys will go away.
It is a stunning denial of reality.
Such naivete is dangerous in this world, and anyone who espouses it is a most unworthy successor to Truman, Kennedy and Reagan.
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