About That Cairo Speech

Here’s the passage that bugs me the most about Obama’s Cairo speech earlier this week:

So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

Personally, I consider it part of the responsibility of the President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of the United States wherever they appear. Obama has not just ignored that responsibility, he’s become our nation’s worse critic on the international stage.

Take Gitmo as an example. Compare Obama’s vow to defend Islam against negative stereotypes with this account from Debra Burlingame, a 9/11 widow, about a meeting between the President and families of 9/11 and USS Cole victims:

On Feb. 6, the president arrived in the Roosevelt Room to a standing though subdued ovation from some 40 family members. With a White House photographer in his wake, Mr. Obama greeted family members one at a time and offered brief remarks that were full of platitudes (“you are the conscience of the country,” “my highest duty as president is to protect the American people,” “we will seek swift and certain justice”). Glossing over the legal complexities, he gave a vague summary of the detainee cases and why he chose to suspend them, focusing mostly on the need for speed and finality.

Many family members pressed for Guantanamo to remain open and for the military commissions to go forward. Mr. Obama allowed that the detention center had been unfairly confused with Abu Ghraib, but when asked why he wouldn’t rehabilitate its image rather than shut it down, he silently shrugged. Next question.

Of course, a lot has changed on the Gitmo front since February, and it increasingly looks as though the facility will remain open by necessity. When that day comes, will President Obama admit that he was wrong on the issue and President Bush was right? Will he belatedly take up Debra Burlingame’s invitation to rehabilitate Gitmo’s image in the international community? Hell no! Gitmo will be born again with the Messiah’s personal seal of approval. He’ll condemn what happened at Gitmo in the past as a “betrayal” of “our” values, but give his personal assurance that all that has changed because of him. Instead of American exceptionalism, he will once again promote Obamican exceptionalism.

But in the meantime, don’t portray Islam in an unfair light—not on Obama’s watch.

CORRECTION: A helpful reader correctly points out in the comments that Debra Burlingame is not a 9/11 widow, but rather the sister of Charles “Chic” Burlingame, the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that was crashed into the Pentagon. Thanks for the correction.