Many words have been spoken
and a lot of ink spilled decrying Barack Obama’s admonition that Christians and
Jews should get off their “high horse.”
Muslims, we are told, are merely following in the footsteps of our
misdeeds; hence we must understand.
If Muslims are now killing
people in the name of their religion, so once did we. Who then are we to judge? Our pride should not motivate us to assume we
are better than them. Besides, ISIS is
not really Islamic.
The question is: Do we have
a right to be judgmental? Can we look
upon rape, mass murder, beheadings, and immolation and declare these
barbaric? Are our hands so bloody that
we must hang our heads in shame rather than identify the religious affiliation
of the perpetrators?
As many commentators have
observed, the crusades, Inquisition, slavery, and Jim Crow are behind us. We are not perfect. We never were and never will be. But should that prevent us from making
comparisons? Must we agree that everyone
is exceptional and therefore we cannot claim to be better than them?
This is absurd! To be thoroughly non-judgmental is to have no
standards. Utter amorality is, in fact,
immoral. We do not have to be perfect in
order to condemn savagery. Were this a
requirement for enforcing values, morality would be impossible.
So why does Barack Obama
imply something so ridiculous? The
answer—the only one that makes sense—is that he does not love the United States
or take pride in its accomplishments. He
does not want us to defeat ISIS, or any other global opponent—because we do not
merit victory.
At this point, we must think
the unthinkable. People have been
scratching their heads trying to explain Obama’s foreign policy. Why does he routinely reward our enemies and
punish our friends? Why, for that
matter, has he kept our economy enfeebled?
Consider the evidence. It is overwhelming. Barack hates Israel, but loves Iran. He likewise pretends to be fighting back
against ISIS, but does the minimum he can.
Obama knows this is a losing strategy.
Our president is a smart man. He
must know! He just doesn’t care.
Obama has also refused to
help the Ukraine resist Russian aggression.
This threatens to destabilize Europe, but all he sends the Ukrainians is
Meals Ready to Eat. Why? He doesn’t care. He is perfectly happy to see the Russian Bear
regain preeminence.
Obama told us he would never
allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
But isn’t that what he is doing?
Aren’t his negotiations with the Iranians slow-walking us to this conclusion? Israel and the United States are in mortal
danger if the Middle East explodes. But
he doesn’t care. If we are harmed, our
arrogance deserves to be tempered.
Or think about the Keystone
pipeline. The argument that this will
destroy the environment has been debunked—even by the State Department. Nonetheless Obama keeps finding excuses to
stop it. Our economy is being harmed and
Canada alienated, but who cares?
Now we have a newly stated national
strategic policy and what are its priorities? Amazingly, fighting global warming ranks
higher than confronting radical Islam.
Can this be serious? Is this strategic patience or a decision to do
nothing to defend us from genuine threats?
Neither ISIS nor Russia is
about to overrun our homeland. In this
sense, they are not “existential” challenges.
But who knows what they will develop into if these festering sores are
not addressed. Can passivity in the face
of aggression and barbarism be truly wise?
Or is it a prescription for
losing? Our president evidently believes
that we are greedy racists. We are depicted
as innately unfair, insufferably smug, and too powerful for our own good. Ergo, we need to be taken down a peg!
But I love America and am
proud of it! I do not want to see us
lose. I hope enough Americans feel the same.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
No comments:
Post a Comment