OBAMA’S “NETWORK OF DEATH” U.N. SPEECH COULD BE ONE OF HIS BEST EVER
Getting other Muslim nations to
help against ISIL could become one of Obama’s greatest achievements.
Being an Obama
supporter, I felt it only appropriate that I write a comment about what I think
will eventually be one of the president’s most acknowledged speeches. His speech this week to the United Nations General Assembly was
amazing, and as was stated by the Washington
Post columnist, Dana Milbank, “This is how a Nobel Peace Prize laureate goes to war.”
First, each of
the presenters to the UN General Assembly
are given a speaking time of just 15 minutes, President Obama’s spoke for 40
minutes.
But as I
listened to the whole speech, I have to admit it did not seem to be that
long. It was a masterfully crafted
speech, as he started the speech in describing his grandmother’s home in
Kenya. He then continued saying,
“Islam teaches peace,” while
admitting that America offers many flaws on its “path of diplomacy and peace”.
But he ended one of his comments about what’s going on today in Iraq and
Syria with, “lasting gains cannot be won
at the barrel of a gun.”
In the
president’s famous “Arab Spring” 2009
speech in Cairo, he had spoken out against the US use of torture. But this time, after speaking for about 20
minutes, he launched into exactly why he had come to the UN. The president stated, “In the most horrific crimes imaginable, innocent human beings have been
beheaded, with videos of the atrocity distributed to shock the conscience of
the world.” He added, “No god condones this terror. No grievance
justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning, no negotiation, with this
brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the
language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad
coalition to dismantle this “Network of Death.”
Dubya Bush had
referred to the region as part of the “Axis
of Evil”. But Obama’s “Network of Death” came with a warning
that, “The terrorist group known as ISIL
must be degraded and ultimately destroyed.”
And then he said, “Those who have
joined ISIL should leave the battlefield while they can.” He added that those that continue to
fight will also continue to find themselves very much alone.
In many ways,
the president said the US would be helping Iraq, and other responsible
middle-east nations in holding-on to their territory. But he made it clear that the reality is that
the middle eastern nations need to take responsibility for resolving their own
issues and for dealing with their own Muslim extremists.
Even in 2009,
the new president had said, “The enduring
faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a
few.” He could have easily repeated that line in this latest speech. Back
then he had also said, “Islam is not part of the problem in
combating violent extremism, it is an important part of promoting peace,”
which was another message he was trying once again to communicate at the
UN….but were they listening? Personally,
I don’t think so.
Obama was
totally serious when he directed the following comment to all Muslims, “It is
time for the world, especially in Muslim communities, to explicitly, forcefully
and consistently reject the ideology of organizations like al-Qaeda and ISIL,
also known as the Islamic State.” He then issued his disgust at his
intolerance of Muslim clerics who preach hate, and the hypocrisy of those who
fund the terrorism.
I was
surprised at the end of the speech when he mentioned the recent racial events
in Ferguson, Missouri, as he stated, “What
you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our
problems,……America is not the same as it was even a decade ago, because we
address our differences in the open space of democracy with respect for the
rule of law, with a place for people of every race and every religion.”
He was
finishing this way by making it clear that even though he was making the case
for using force against a group such as ISIL, and that the US was being helped
by other Muslim nation-states such as Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates and Jordan, the key is to eventually work toward an atmosphere for all
the parties to address their differences without having to revert to the use of
force.
…Bombing by US and Arab
planes hitting ISIL’s mobile oil refineries in Iraq & Syria
Yes, this is
all a somewhat fantasy for these groups that have been fighting each other for
centuries. But in his heart, I do
believe President Obama is trying to use his Teddy Roosevelt - “Big Stick” approach, while also
preaching that it doesn’t have to always end or be the way of war.
In other
words, it is very much as how Dana Milbank had stated, it was a speech where
someone that had received the Noble Peace
Prize can also be capable of justifying going to war against Muslim extremists.
President
Barack Obama is one of the few individuals that has the capability of doing
exactly that, especially against such a horrific organization as the so called Islamic State.
Copyright
G.Ater 2014
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