Israel Matzav

Get off your knees Hillary and bring the President with you

James Kirchik and Michael Goodwin both rip Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for having adopted her boss's practice of apologizing all over the world for perceived wrongs committed by the United States. The occasion for the rants was Mrs. Clinton's little hint in Nigeria (of all places) this past week that the 2000 election was stolen by Florida Governor Jeb Bush on behalf of his brother George. Here's Kirchik:

Clinton's remark wasn't just a trivial aside, but the sort of assertion that discredits America overseas. Whether it's conspiracy theories about how the 2000 election was "stolen" by shadowy interests or how a half-dozen "neocons" tricked our government into fighting a "war for oil" (or Israel), such claims do great damage to the US by lending credibility to the false grievances of our enemies, who mock the notion that America is a beacon of liberty.

President Obama came into office boasting of how he would improve America's image in the world. How can he do that when his Secretary of State is confirming the allegations of anti-American propagandists?

Goodwin goes further in blaming Obama for Clinton's remarks.

The bended-knee approach abroad shames America and reduces our great nation to the sum of its mistakes and failures. And it seems designed to create the misleading impression that Third-World kleptocrats and genocidal maniacs are, gee, just like us.

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Nigerians would be thankful for any election that didn't involve the army and stacks of corpses. Instead, they get childish bromides about American flaws.

That sends a demoralizing message to reformers fighting Nigeria's government, which is regarded as one of the most corrupt in the world. One estimate suggests some $300 billion has been siphoned from oil revenues and international aid in the last decade alone.

General elections there in 2007 reflected a political system that is democratic in name only. Some polling stations never opened, ballots went missing and opposition supporters were murdered. One report said 50 people died in election violence.

That's the outcome Clinton compared with America's 2000 race.

For her and Obama, everything is still about George Bush. Anything he touched is the Dark Ages and they have self-aggrandizingly anointed themselves the Enlightened Ones.

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Sadly, it fits neatly with her boss' "blame America" approach to foreign policy. Once he leaves our borders, Obama exhibits a bad habit of bad-mouthing his own country in ways that suggest we are no better than the rest of the world and are often the root of problems.

...

The policy implications of a moral equivalency view of the world are troubling. In Cairo, for example, Obama movingly decried the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, then glibly shifted to the need for a Palestinian state as though the two are of equal weight and linked.

In the same speech, he waffled on whether the U.S. would accept Iran getting nukes, saying, "No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons."

It's a fellowship foreign policy when American leadership is desperately needed. That leadership must start with a clear-headed view of the simple fact that America is the one indispensable nation on Earth. Economically, militarily and yes, morally, America stands alone as the beacon of human liberty.

Perhaps Obama and Clinton could get off their knees and say so just once.

Kirchik and Goodwin are spot-on. American leadership is desperately needed in the battle against Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, all the current occupant of the White House and his underlings can do is apologize. A leader who has no pride in his country cannot bring that country to lead.

Let's hope the world gets through the current era despite Barack Hussein Obama, and that America elects a President in 2012 who takes as much pride in America as America takes in that President.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:17 PM