Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama's middle name will rescue America


Obama used mobile phones to deliver his message directly to the people and get elected.

Barack Hussein Obama will use his middle name to reach out to the 1.5 billion people and 57 countries that make up the Muslim world, put an end to the catastrophic "clash of civilisations" and get faith, trust and money flowing back to America.

I have a dream!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Barack Hussein Obama will use his middle name to reach out to the 1.5 billion people and 57 countries that make up the Muslim world ..."

No chance. Didn't you hear his inauguration speach?

"We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

Who do you think he is speaking about?

Philip I said...

Anonymous

I heard every word, and I'm not a religious or an emotional emperor :)

No one would attack America's way of life as long as America did not impose it on others and led the world by example. That was the essence of the rest of his speech.

As the saying goes: "Blowing out other peoples' candles will not make yours shine any brighter!"

penlan said...

Phillip,

Have you considered joining the liberalsonline.ca aggregator? You would be an asset to it.

penlan said...

Oops! That's "Philip". Sorry.

Anonymous said...

What do you make of this, from his speech:
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

Obama is a politician, and if you read his words carefully, you can see that it is not clear what he is saying to whom, but with the recent Gaza war in mind, don't you think that there is a message to it for the likes of Hamas - if all you can bring for your people is a culture of death and destruction, you are failures. If you wish to lead your people, build. Don't smuggle in rockets, smuggle food and medicine. Don't build tunnels to hide yourself while your people die, build them schools so they can learn to build their own society. Focus on building yourselves rather than on raging at the enemy.

dontgetit

Anonymous said...

sorry - I am not great at HTML so I hope I was clear above. The first paragraph is a direct quote from Obama's speech (after my little intro). The second paragraph is me, writing about it.

dontgetit

Philip I said...

Penlan

Thank you for your kind and generous comment. I have not heard of liberalsonline.ca but I'll have a look at it as am always looking for ideas and inspiration!

Philip I said...

Anonymous

Obama is a smart lawyer who understands the power and subtlety of language. At least we know he is not a dogmatic politician of the type "you are either with us or against us".

All I would say about Hamas is that it behaves like a caged, starved and tormented animal. Check the facts from dispassionate sources and draw your own conclusions.

Anonymous said...

Philip:
I understand how Hamas behaves. I think Obama's point is that if you behave like an animal, you will be judged as one. If Hamas wants to be judged as something else, they need to show some positive leadership and actually do something for their people rather than lead them into destruction. If you want to blame Israel, that is fine. But it is not productive. Israel behaves as is rational for it. If Hamas wants to achieve something for their people, they need to transcend their cage. Or they can hope to wait out Israel and lead their current people to the slaughter in the hope that some future generations will get to claim victory over Israel.


I read somewhere that Hamas leaders claimed that they lost only 50 fighters. Whether that is true or not, it is amazing that he would say that. If true, it would mean that the Hamas fighters were lying safe in some tunnels while the people up above, the people they are supposed to represent and fight for, were dying. That doesn't seem like any kind of leadership. On the other hand, I haven't seen evidence that the Gazans resent Hamas for hiding in relative safety, so I guess that is ok for them.

Philip I said...

Anonymous

Zealots on both sides are to blame. Even if Hamas was 100% responsible for prolonging the agony of its own people, nothing could possibly justify dropping white phosphorus bombs on children.


This post is about the immense damage to international relations that has resulted from branding every Muslim a potential terrorist and every one who disagrees with US foreign policy a potential enemy of the state.

9/11 was a massive blow that shook Americans and every decent person in the world to the core. But for the next 7 years, US political energy, tax payers' money and crude military power have been directed at the wrong targets. This is because the Neocons have persuaded Congress and the general public to view the world through their own narrow lenses. They have in fact managed to turn America's potential foes (and even some friends) into real enemies.

Let us hope that Obama's administration will bring sanity back to the Pentagon and State Department.

Anonymous said...

We are in for a world of hurt, we see contradiction to everything that Obama says, he says that he will stop war, but how is that possible with the recent acts of terrorists attacks in Israel. With our relationship and obligation to help Israel we can not pull out without possibly creating another enemy. If Obama was focused on keeping freedom in the United States of America he would put efforts into protecting it. We are so damn focused on trying to please what we need, as luxuries, that we lose out on what matters most, our Freedom. Our Economy's state is a priority, but any monkey in its right mind can tell people to deal with a problem such as that.Signing papers aren't that hard. We need to focus on matters that really matter in this country. We are blind to many problems: our relationships with other countries will change for the worse, the morals of our country will diminish and the damn skeletons in Barack Obama's closet will not even be brought forward. The media sugar coats anything Democrat's have to do and say and we never see the bad side, and they do the exact opposite for the Republicans. America does not need a Big Headed, one track minded president, that stole his sayings to fuel his campaign from a children's show. Im sure Bob the builder can speak for himself, "Yes We Can",and i don't even want to mention Joe the Plumber. We do need change, we need to get Barrack Obama out of the Seat of President of the United States.

Anonymous said...

Philip:
This is the part of Obama's speech that I was focused on: "know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy."

After some discussion, you made this point: "Zealots on both sides are to blame. Even if Hamas was 100% responsible for prolonging the agony of its own people, nothing could possibly justify dropping white phosphorus bombs on children."

Obama's message, and the point I was trying to make is that if Gazans are to have any hope, their leaders must not blame Israel for what it does, but rather focus on building a life for the people. Hamas intended to provoke Israel. It intended to kill Israelis. Whether Israel responded killed 50 or 100 or 1,000, it was the result of Hamas's actions. But you will say, Hamas did what it did because of Israel. And I will say, so what! Gazans don't need Hamas to respond to Israel, let alone respond to Israel and drag them into destruction. Gazans need leaders that build something for them. I will go back to the tunnels and the smuggling. Every Hamas rocket and bullet that was brought into Gaza, took the place of food, or building material or medicine or books. Every hiding place Hamas built for its fighters (and not for its people) took the place of a productive building or school or house or road or sewer system. (This doesn't even take into account that the weapons are themselves useless other than for killing a random Israeli with no tactical result and so do nothing to advance the interests of the Gazans, and as was seen, do a lot to backfire by bringing an Israeli response - in other words, they are worse then useless, they are actually harmful).

Blaming Israel does nothing when your own efforts are spent ignoring the interests of your people. You may not like the Israelis, you may even hate them, but it is hard to see how you can blame others when Hamas itself, by its choice of what to smuggle into the country, makes the welfare of its people less a priority than token, futile "resistance".

Philip I said...

Anonymous

A pacifist Palestinian response to Israel seems like an attractive idea.

In the case of Gaza, the economic and physical blockade that has followed the withdrawal of Israel and election of Hamas has effectively turned the narrow strip into a concentration camp for 1.5 million people. So it is not realistic to expect strangled people to suffer in silence.

In the case of the West Bank, the eviction of Palestinians and demolition of 18,000 of their homes since 1967, and establishment of 223 illegal Israeli settlements on their land do not serve as a good basis for a lasting peace between nations. While they are not exactly proud of their own incompetent leaders, generations of Palestinians have suffered abuse, poverty and death at the hands of the settlers and Israeli military, so do not expect a Ghandi-like response from them.

Perhaps these two documentaries will explain why peace will never be achieved until the illegal expansion of settlements in the West Bank stops and the inhuman blockade of Gaza ends.

Documentary 1

Documentary 2

Anonymous said...

Philip:
We are talking in circles. My simple point is that Palestinians should demand leadership that makes the lives of Palestinians a priority, rather than their focus on Israel.

I believe that is a worthy goal all by itself. Hamas has made the lives of Gazans infinitely worse than it was before they were elected. There are no settlements in Gaza. The blockade is a response to Hamas and its actions and rhetoric, whether you like it or not. Gazans lives would be immeasurably better if Hamas smuggled food and medicine, not rockets and bullets.

As a secondary point, I also believe peace with Israel and political gains would be the result. Israel treats the Palestinians and Hamas particularly as a hostile people who seek its destruction. If Hamas had a different priority, if it showed it was not interested in attacking Israel, the response from Israel would be different. But even if I am wrong, there is only benefit and no harm in making the welfare of the people rather than political struggle a priority. You can always come back to the struggle, and it is better to do it on a full belly with a thriving economy to support you.

But my opinion doesn't matter. I believe in democracy and if the Gazans have chosen the party of armed struggle and like having a government that brings the roof down on their heads in the name of resistance, that is their right.

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