Yesterday, the President and Secretary of State of the United States of America went on Pakistani television to apologize.
In a commercial containing clips from their Washington press conferences, subtitled in Urdu, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton said “sorry” to the mad hordes attacking the American embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and deplored the infamous anti-Muslim14-minute YouTube video.
“We absolutely reject its content and message,” said Clinton in the advertisements, which ended with the seal of the American embassy in Pakistan. U.S. taxpayers footed the bill for this high-level official apology to the tune of $70,000.
This is not public diplomacy. This is madness.
First off, Clinton and Obama should actually issue another apology—this one to the personnel of the U.S. embassy in Cairo. Their apology statement, posted on the embassy’s website on September 11 while the embassy was under attack, was denounced the following day by the Secretary of State and the President and subsequently taken down.
All these apologies are, however, extensions of the Obama “apology tour,” the moral underpinning of the President’s approach to foreign policy, which holds that the U.S. must be at fault whenever international problems arise. It began soon after his inauguration and is still going strong. The President has apologized for Guantanamo; for the CIA and its techniques; for U.S. policies toward the Americas; for slavery, segregation, and the treatment of Native Americans; for the War on Terrorism; for policy toward the Muslim world, etc., etc.
At the heart of Obama’s display of humility, however, is his belief in his own power to redeem this country’s many sins. To the G-20 summit of world leaders, Obama stated in 2009, “I would like to think that with my election and the early decisions that we’ve made, that you’re starting to see some restoration of America’s standing in the world.” Clearly, the rioting mobs burning the American flag and even the President’s image don’t see it that way.
Instead of apologies, the public diplomacy message of the Administration should be a defense of American people, values, and interests. Here is what a worthwhile commercial featuring Clinton and Obama might have said:
We have had enough. The United States stands for freedom of expression at home and abroad and will continue to do so in the face of thuggish intimidation. Freedom of expression is a fundamental principle enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We stand with those who share these values, and we demand that all violence against our embassies and personnel cease immediately.
Sadly, though, the apology tour continues.
In the US, where freedom of speech is a right, not a privilege, we have many movies in theaters, on DVD, and on the net that satirize, make fun of, and insult Jesus, Moses, and several other prophets, including Mohammad. American Jews, Muslims, and Christians don't riot and blow themselves up. We don't murder.
We Americans have fought, sacrificed, and died to protect these freedoms. We are not going to change. When you really distill fundamentalism down to its core values, you'll find a political movement, shrouded in religious clothing.
To my Muslim friends I say, I respect your beliefs … if you make jokes about Moses, Jesus, Apollo, Zeus, Tutankhamen, Venus, or the flying spaghetti god, – I'm not wishing you bodily harm. Live this life … get over it, the next life will be as it may.
No apology is warranted.
Unbelieveable!!! and we still have a Large percentage of the population who plan on voting for Him and the Democrats!!! God please open their eyes…Amen
It seems almost that they are inviting Islamists to take up arms against us. ..nah, can't be that.
Thank you for standing up for the freedom movement Helle, so refreshing to see someone in the free press take a stand.
Here, here!!! And so say all of us!
Once again the president and the sec of state are on the apology tour paid by our tax dollars for a situation that was not caused by the US. Whether there is or isn't not a video that sparked the killing of our Americans in the Middle East and the burning of our embassies is not the reason. The reason is that radical Islamist hate the United State. The present administration tried to spin the narrative to the video, but the "man in the street" knew that the attack on our consult occurred on 9/11 was a planned attack. The president and the sec of state are out of the league on the issue of foreign policy and defending the United State position in the world. We should reduce or stop sending foreign aid (money) to those middle east countries who hate us and to harm to our citizens. We should also those countries to remove their embassies and personnel from our soil. We are dealing with countries still living the 9th century who use their religion as a weapon to control their people and the world outside their borders.
Sad writing to come from our Leader ( leading down a slippery slope) people need to see the truth and open their minds to the truth as it is for us today not the blind untruths that the media tries to sell.
We are in the process of the loss of our American Freedom and the Constitution that was written so many years ago. It is going to take a long time to undo the losses to America and the American People that have happened over this administrations term.
"Our system works by trial and error. On a long view it is far superior to any other known method of government. But it depends on the principle that when a policy has been given a trial and found to be based on error, it must be discarded. "
"We were not all wrong" 1941
Geoffrey Mander M.P.
It is no longer "far superior to any other known method of government". Unfortunately we now know that It is just as flood and corruptible as other forms of governments. US Constitution – the supreme law of the land – has been rendered irrelevant by endles judicial misinterpretations. Personal liberties are disappearing and being replaced by a police state at an alarming rate.
I feel the American citizens deserve an apology for the misleading unsubstantiated statements from those in high office. Who can we believe?
Why is Obama and Clinton apologizing? Could it be true that Hillary's closest adviser is tied directly to the Muslim Brotherhood, that by the way, is now controling most of the Middle East?
I think he should go give his apology in person…………
But then you and I would be footing the bill.
Sad that our Commander in chief made the desicion to go to a 40,000.00 a plate fundraiser, When he was needed to help his fellow AMERICANS…