Middle East Mea Culpa FAIL

Source: Daily Telegraph

Obama did not address the scale of the Iranian threat, or Iran’s support for terrorism, or UN sanctions against Iran.

The president drew a hugely controversial parallel between Jewish suffering in the Holocaust with the current plight of the Palestinians.

Obama used the word “occupation” to describe the Palestinian refugee camps, a term more commonly used by Israel-hating UN or EU officials when attacking Israel.

Once again the president brought up the Guantanamo/torture issue in front of an international audience, part of a ritual exercise in self-loathing that has become a hallmark of the Obama administration.

Obama did not once use the words “terrorist”, “terrorism” or “Islamist”. When you are waging a global war, you have to identify who you are fighting against - in this case the free world is fighting against Islamist terrorists representing an Islamist extremist ideology.

President Obama’s feel-good Cairo speech will do little to strengthen America’s position in the Middle East. It is a speech that projects weakness and contrition rather than American leadership - at times the president seemed embarrassed about America’s global power and achievements. Many of Obama’s statements were apologetic in tone, and the speech failed to recognize the huge role the United States has played in freeing tens of millions of Muslims from the Baathists and the Taliban. In fact no country in history has done more to defend Muslims from oppression than America, from Afghanistan to Kosovo to Iraq. The president’s address will only deepen the impression among both America’s enemies and allies that Barack Obama does not have the stomach for a long war against Islamist terrorism, nor the will to stand up to the Iranian nuclear threat. The world needs stronger leadership than this.