First Impressions on Obama Cairo Speech

In his speech today at Cairo University, President Obama made a noble effort to try and improve America's image in the Muslim world, unfortunately he stumbled a few times during his speech and some of his mistakes could have consequences later on. Although the speech was well delivered as is characteristic of Obama, and there were a fair number of good lines in it, but at times it was hard to shake the feeling that he was channeling Jimmy Carter in that he was being a nice guy who didnt seem to have any sensible grasp on foreign policy.

Obama was correct for the most part in his overview of Christian and Muslim relations over the course of their history however I fear he gave the wrong impression sometimes when quoting the Koran but the President does have the uncanny ability to be all things to all people as he demonstrated during his campaign, unfortuantely this makes it hard to tell who he really is at times.

Looking over the transcript pdf from CNN.com, I have to admit that the paragraph at the end of page 5 where he talks about the 9/11 attacks and the necessity to pursue Al Qaeda and the Taliban was certainly a high point of his speech. Regardless of their feelings towards the USA, Muslims need to recognize and accept that Al Qaeda is dedicated to the murder of innocents. As Obama correctly stated at the end of that paragraph, "These are not opinions to be debated, these are facts to be delt with."

Moving on I am glad Obama took the opportunity to remind Muslims that America has no interest in setting up bases and staying in Afghanistan any longer than we have to but it sounded like he was suggesting that we would not leave until there were no more "extremist" ie terrorists in the region, a noble idea but hopelessly idealistic. Hopefully Pakistan can prove that it is capable of defeating terrorist uprisings in its own borders and then we simply need to make sure Afghanistan is capable of the same.

Then Obama moved to Iraq. I am not sure where he was during the years from 1991 to 2003 but I seem to remember many UN resolutions, debates, and Saddam Hussein not cooperating with weapons inspectors. Let me say this again, we tried Diplomacy with Iraq, it didnt work. We tried "diplomacy at the point of a lance" and Saddam Hussein was executed and Iraq is now on its way to being a much better nation that it had any hope of being during the Saddam era. We can talk about WMDs till Obama stops saying the word "change" and it will not change the fact that Saddam had aple opportunity to reach a diplomatic solution with the United States.

As for closing Guantanamo Bay, I believe that decision will be looked upon in the future as a mistake that could easily have been seen with the benefit of retrospect. However due to the press coverage and international perception of Gitmo (in spite of reality) closing the prison may give some boost to America's perception in the world but I have my doubts as to whether the benefits outweigh the cost.

Obama did have another shining moment talking about Israel, calling America's bond with Israel "unbreakable" was very important. Jews have a claim to that land and they are not leaving. The sooner Muslims realize and accept this, the closer we are to reaching something ressembling peace on that front (now if only the Palestinians would stop harassing Israel like a kid poking a bear with a stick).

Obama also scored points in condemning those who deny the Holocaust. "Six-million Jews were killed, denying that fact is baseless, ignorant, and hateful."

Talking about the Palestinians, Obama made them out to be victims more than he should have. The Palestinians are just as much a victim as the Israelis are, Israel however has gotten its act together and is much stronger because of it so it is unfairly seen as the "bully" more often than not. If Palestenians want their state they have to stop using violence in a futile attempt to destroy Israel and they have to recognize Israel's right to exist. Until they do at least those two things Israel stands to lose far more than they could gain by turning over territory for a Palestinian state, case and point, the turnover of the Gaza strip a few years ago solved nothing and in fact may have given Hamas a political victory. The worst thing you can do is reward terrorism.

The ultimate "face-palm" moment in Obama's speech was when he said "Any nation, including Iran, should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power..." to his credit he added "...if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty." I guarantee you that the first part of that statement is already being quoted out of context in North Korea and Iran is may even help Ahmadinejad score some political points in the Iranian elections. Obama's comment could not come at a worse time.

Obama then talked about his belief that no nation has the right to impose a system of government on another nation. I ask why not? It worked out pretty well for Germany and Japan to name the obvious examples. The fact is Democratic governments have been proven overtime to be the ideal system of government as they provide a people with a free society with a balance between government power and control by the people. Too much government control can lead to Dictatorship, too much power in the hands of the people can lead to anarchy, neither is a desirable result and so Democracy is the ideal balance between the two extremes. If Obama is saying that no system of government is better than any other then he is simply wrong.

Inbetween the image of Hillary Clinton in a Berka and Obama quoting the Koran, I am afraid that the President's visit and speech in Egypt will have some consequences down the road. It was done with the best of intentions but so were many of the things Jimmy Carter did.