If Obama Doesn’t Understand European History He Can’t Get America’s Future History Right
President Barack Obama’s mistaken reference to Nazi German death camps as “Polish death camps” is being ridiculed by critics as an example of incompetence. That misses the point. His defense is that he was just reading his teleprompter. That misses the point, too.
After all, you don’t need to be a historical genius to have caught that error even if it was on the teleprompter. I am not suggesting that Obama doesn’t know that the Nazi Germans operated the death camps, though, to recall another gaffe of his, he might think that those among them hailing from the country whose capital had been Vienna spoke “Austrian.”
Nevertheless, what this is really about is that Obama does not see himself as emerging from European history and, truth be told and despite his university degrees, doesn’t know much about it. He has no idea, for example, about how the Poles and other Central European people, or Europe itself, think or what they have gone through. And frankly he doesn’t care.
On one level, that is rather obvious. His father was Kenyan. But, of course, his mother was an American of European descent. Still, Obama has not chosen to focus on his simultaneously half-African/half-European parentage. He has identified himself as an African-American, and the word African here has to be taken literally, not just as a matter of ancestry from three centuries ago. The only exception to this stance, I believe, was a reference to Irish ancestry during a visit to that country and a feeble, rather insultingly stereotyped, attempt at an Irish accent.
Forget about this as a matter of race or skin color. Think of it as a matter of geographical choice. Obama draws heavily from Third World standpoints, something quite evident in his choice of church, for example. I cannot recall his ever quoting a European political philosopher. He has never to my knowledge made any reference publicly to Communism at all. In his books, the emphasis is on feelings, personal experiences, and ideas that come out of his head. But isn’t it also important to have someone who knows about how Africans think? Sure, and I don’t think Obama understands them either, but that’s not the subject of this article.
Obama has claimed that his grandfather was punished as an anti-British activist during the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya. The prime minister at the time was Winston Churchill, and it is no coincidence that one of Obama’s first acts was to return a Churchill bust to Britain in a rude manner. Basically, Obama views himself as an anti-imperialist and sees America, along with Britain, as imperialist. But that, too, is a subject for another time.
It’s fine to have a president who doesn’t come from a European background personally or physically but not so good to have a president who doesn’t grasp the meaning of modern European history. That’s why they used to have those Western civilization courses required of every college student, a standard whose loss has been devastating in the production of credentialed ignoramuses.
Forget about not knowing European history. Americans in general do not know that history or world geography anymore than they know their own history or geography. You should have pointed out that Obama learned at the feet of spiritual mentor, Pastor Wright a few important things to him: Anti- Semitism and Liberation Theology. Add to this a fondness for Islam because of his early contact with this religion while growing up in east Asia. This alone explains his propensity to side with The Islamic Brotherhood, calling Assad a reformer, and Turkey “our friend and ally in spite of their support of Islamic terror that blew 241 US unarmed US marines in Lebanon there to help that country. I am an ex- fanatical Democrat who help elect Democrats knocking on doors and answering phones. I will vote for Romney never knowingly voting for an anti- Semite. To my great shame I mistakenly voted for Carter. Twice! Never again!
Europe suffered greatly from leftist extremism. Communism was a disaster
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It was worse than that-let me explain, because this concerns you Americans as well. Germans murdered 6 million Poles (of all faiths)-but they made us heroes.If you have to fight for your life, you most probably will become very heroic.The best values,also fueled by the best the catholic faith has to offer were brought out- an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki
He was murdered by communist scum, until today, we were not able to bury him (because we don’t know where these criminals put him).Why does Hollywood not make a movie about him? Oh yes, probably because he was a Polish patriot,war hero,was a devout Catholic,had a family,moral values ect.He was no hippie. An action movie,because that is what his life was. The Germans killed Polish bodies, but the Communist killed their souls. Are You familiar with the term “homo sovieticus”? Google it if not-this might be your future.Today,my nation has a terrible low self-esteem, the only real government we had was the one of Kaczynski, who proudly fought for Polish national interest.Today, the media in Poland has a liberal bias,everything Polish or patriotic is spat upon,communist criminals are not punished (during the Round Table Talks they in theory resign from power.But they saw to it that they got the good new opportunities from themselves forming a new de-facto aristocracy).”Left” lunatics want Poland to become “tolerant”,meaning,we should tolerate,no,rather accept and appreciate- headscarfs and worse,other cultures,unimportant how barbaric they are, mass immigration, everything that happens on Gay Pride Parades. We should hate our own culture.We should feel guilty for the holocaust because we are “antisemits” (some ideologues of the “left” mag Krytyka Polityczna are excusing Obama because of this! Thankfully,Jewish Poles protested against these bigots who use the holocaust to fight against the right/conservatives and called them out on their pro-Palestine stance). Americans, don’t let this happen to Your country!!! I know, as a Pole, what communism actually means-it a disease of the soul.
Yes out of most EU countries Poland got the BIGGEST Shaft from Russia & Germany and rest of Euro trash
I’m sure Obama accomplished his actual goal in this: to demonstrate the kind of “flexibility” that Vladimir Putin demands of him. There’s nothing that the Russians love more than sticking it to Poland and Obama the fellow traveler is only too happy to oblige.
I cannot recall his ever quoting a European political philosopher.
Probably true of most U.S. Presidents, and not necessarily a drawback.
He has never to my knowledge made any reference publicly to Communism at all.
Why should he? He became President in 2009, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
In his books, the emphasis is on feelings, personal experiences, and ideas that come out of his head.
Again, this is not obviously a drawback. Wouldn’t you prefer someone who thinks for himself and doesn’t merely pick up predigested ideas?
But isn’t it also important to have someone who knows about how Africans think? Sure.
Why? Africa exerts no influence on the outside world and no African idea (if there even is such a thing) has ever mattered outside of Africa. From the point of view of the United States, Africa is merely a recipient of American charity and nothing more.
but not so good to have a president who doesn’t grasp the meaning of modern European history.
History doesn’t have a meaning except what various people give it, usually in order to feel good about themselves and without much regard for the full truth.
That’s why they used to have those Western Civilization courses required of every college student
Surely Rubin doesn’t believe that the average alumnus of Western Civ 101, who knows next to nothing about history, actually knows more about European history than Obama? Obama may be bad, but there’s no evidence that he’s quite that bad.
If you don’t understand the basis of American exceptionalism…
That slogan, which some treat as if it represented some timely or useful idea for understanding the world, is in reality little more than a flag-waving exercise. What made America unique in the 19th century — things like democracy, religious pluralism, public education — is now typical for much of the world. One can easily argue that any country is exceptional by picking out a set of historical circumstances and telling a good little story. Thus the Poles, the Greeks, the British, the French, the Israelis, the Russians — all think they are excepional.
Europe suffered greatly from leftist extremism. Communism was a disaster
Communism was a disaster because it unleashed the savagery of brainwashed and bloodthirsty Russian peasants on — first of all, the Russians themselves — but also on Eastern Europe as a consequence of Hitler’s war. The terror and the gulags have nothing to do with the debates on economics in a civilized Western country.
Not knowing this story means that Obama isn’t inoculated against some of the same mistakes.
This explanation of Obama’s leftism — that he’s ignorant of European history and doesn’t know about the horrors of Communism — doesn’t explain the French, who’ve elected an even bigger leftist as their president. In fact, why aren’t all the European socialists “inoculated against some of the same mistakes”? The same argument can be applied to all of Rubin’s points: if Obama’s mistaken ideas stem from his ignorance of recent European history, then what accounts for so many Europeans holding the same mistaken ideas?
It was that date Obama chose to cancel the placement of U.S. defensive missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic. Those two countries, which had taken considerable risks—Russia made threats–in agreeing to host the missiles.
That day, I happened out of curiosity to take a look in the comments section of a mainstream Polish news website (can’t remember which one), about the news that the missile shield was being cancelled. The only thing I remember reading in that comments section is some posts asserting that the missile defense was a Jewish “neocon” conspiracy to harm Poland.
If Obama had been president in the early 1990s, the letter hints rather subtly, `We would not be in NATO today”
Why does NATO still exist? Eastern-European countries can defend themselves against conventional Russian threats (à la the invasion of Georgia), especially with civilized and democratic Germany close behind them. And for non-conventional threats, NATO would not be of much use anyway.
“Americans proved they weren’t racist by electing Obama in 2008. Now they must prove they aren’t stupid by voting him out of office in 2012.”
That’s not bad but I disagree — with the first part, that is.
Wow, OK. Look, I’m not going to respond to every point. But regarding 2 of them–
Obama’s policies are heavily socialistic, borderline Communistic, because he doesn’t believe that people have a right to disagree with him. He knows they do, but he considers their veiwpoints unimportant and not worth discussing. The fact that he doesn’t understand what Communism does to a society is alarming. Regarding the French, they are cultural socialists–Americans are not.
Second, I understood Prof. Rubin’s point about Obama’s book to be about feelings, as saying that Obama doesn’t show any inkling that he learns from outsiders. That is, he comes to his decisions based on what he thinks, and not based on what history has taught us, or based on what experts have to teach, etc. And that is also apparent in his policies–he surrounds himself with talking heads who know almost nothing about the jobs they are supposed to be doing.
M@
Surely Rubin doesn’t believe that the average alumnus of Western Civ 101, who knows next to nothing about history, actually knows more about European history than Obama? Obama may be bad, but there’s no evidence that he’s quite that bad.
Speaking of “Polish death camps” is a rather egregious unforced error. That is pretty bad. I was a STEM major who didn’t take Western Civ 101 in college who has also read history after leaving school. Even I know enough European history to never speak of “Polish death camps.”
I also realized that Austrians speak German, not Austrian.
Unfortunately, very few college students in the last 30 years have taken Western Civ 101, as that has been pushed to the wayside in favor of electives.
Speaking of “Polish death camps” is a rather egregious unforced error.
The adjective “Polish” can mean “in Poland”: as in “Polish wildlife” or “Polish topography.” It’s shouldn’t be used when it can be taken in an unintended ethnic or political sense, which is why it was a poor choice of words on Obama’s part. I doubt any literate person on the planet believes that the Poles themselves set up the death camps in their own country during the war. Speaking of Polish death camps doesn’t work as anti-Polish propaganda because all effective propaganda depends on presenting true facts in such a way as to imply something false but plausible, and the death camps’ having been erected during the war by the Polish people themselves is not plausible.
Besides, Obama is always in the spotlight, in a position where he must make public statements about semi-intellectual subjects like international relations and history. It would take a person of rare erudition who is also an uncommonly accurate speaker not to make the occasional mistake, and mistakes are sure to be seized on and blown out of proportion by those who dislike the President in the first place.
For some reason, I suspect you didn’t apply the “limelight” defense to Bush’s misstatements.
Speak that verbiage to a Pole. Ask a Pole what his response is to the phrase “Polish death camps.” Dzień dobry.
There are a few issues to be raised with your statements. One is that any semi-literate person would never even think the words Polish and Death Camp together like that. Now perhaps he was just reading the teleprompter but that really should not even be a viable excuse.
As a piece of propaganda this would obviously be useless and I do not think anyone was stating the President was attempting to create such.
Finally, the mistake was made by the President held as a remarkable orator of peerless skill counter to the bumbling Bush. And the mistake was not a mix up of a date or sequence of events or something that could be considered technical in nature. The President made a mistake that was culturally very offensive and incredibly difficult to define as a slip of the tongue (Nazi and Polish are incredibly different from each other). And then the added insult of not understanding the previous two points as they relate to others. Unfortunate.
Which explains those Polish Panzer Divisions the Soviets had to fight though to get to Berlin.
By the way, communism didn’t magically disappear with the “fall” of the Soviet Union, in fact pretty much all that changed was the borders and flag, the top man is, after all ex-KGB.
Your defense of an indefensibly lame “president” is pretty desperate. Maybe Mittens does have a chance after all.
Hey Stan!
There were Jews in those camps; why not call them Jewish Death Camps and get extra points on the leftist scorecard?!
Hey Stan!
All those guards were WHITE, why not call them; White Death Camps?!! That could really help your messiah’s campaign!
If you are in Washington, DC and go to Kalorama Rd NW, you will see numerous buildings flying flags of foreign countries. These are embassies. They are in America, but it would be idiotic to refer to them as “American Embassies”.
If you go to Germany, you could possibly see Ramstein Air Base. You would look very foolish if you referred to it as a “German Air Base”. It is an air base of the United States Air Force.
“Polish Death Camps” doesn’t just reflect location, it also clearly implies ownership and control. Given Obama’s history of insulting American allies, there is every reason to assume that this implication was deliberate.
“It would take a person of rare erudition who is also an uncommonly accurate speaker not to make the occasional mistake, and mistakes are sure to be seized on and blown out of proportion by those who dislike the President in the first place.
Oops, please disregard the comment above. The complete comment is below.
“It would take a person of rare erudition who is also an uncommonly accurate speaker not to make the occasional mistake, and mistakes are sure to be seized on and blown out of proportion by those who dislike the President in the first place.”
That argument would be fairly compelling if Obama had just ad libbed the remark. But an article I read yesterday asserted that the “Polish death camp” phrasing was actually right in the Teleprompter script and Obama just read it verbatim.
Perhaps you can explain how the phrase is defensible in that context?
“Surely Rubin doesn’t believe that the average alumnus of Western Civ 101, who knows next to nothing about history, actually knows more about European history than Obama?”
The average sixth grader knows more about European history and I mean that not as snark but quite literally. The man is literally (and I know what that word means) an ignoramous.
Your comments are nonsense. Obama doesn’t quote Europeans because they’re white, end of story. He sees wisdom, not where you find it, but in skin, black skin – that is who he quotes. Do you think it’s a coincidence his inauguration looked like an NAACP convention and a black pastor invited gave a benediction that included “…help us work for that day… when white will embrace what is right?”
Do you think it’s a coincidence that Jay-Z, the voice of today’s young black generation said at the inaugural ball, “My president is black, in fact he’s half white/So even in a racist mind he’s half right/If you’ve got a racist mind it’s alright/My president is black, but his house is all white!”
If Obama could get away with it, the one European he would quote is Marx.
Your remark about American exceptionalism betrays that you may know history, but you sure can’t actually see it. American exceptionalism isn’t a slogan, but a very real thing the Left’s political correctness focuses on because they hate what reality shows them – it makes their gender and race-based philosophy look second-rate. Thus the constant excuses, theories and explanations why white privilege and the New Jim Crow hold rocket scientists back.
If you think American exceptionalism is typical for much of the world you for sure have not been out in that world. What you talk about is a thin smear of American know-how spread over countries where people fly across valleys hanging suspended from cables because they can’t build bridges as effortlessly as men during the mid-19th century could in America, who use elevators and trains one could sell as antiques if they weren’t still using them, and who draw water from wells using cow-power, the same as 2,000 years ago.
Well said Mr. Burton…
Well, Fail, what you say about Obama may well be true but it has nothing to do with my comments, or with Barry Rubin’s points. I’m not even sure Rubin would agree with you. As for your defense of the term “American exceptionalism,” you seem to have completely forgotten about the existence of Europe, which is ironic considering the theme of this thread and of Rubin’s article.
There is nothing the least ironic about my remarks. You specifically mentioned American exceptionalism and I directly addressed it.
Even if I had included Europe, who do you think it was who replaced Europe’s oom-pah-pah bands with John Coltrane, why do you think England’s kitchen fixtures are American inspired, why do you think the French wear baseball caps with no baseball stadiums, why do you think European sports pages directly mimic USA Today’s innovations in the mid-80s, why do you think they have smartphones, facebook, twitter?
I could list 1,000 things Europeans do because of us, and there is very little in the last 60 years that goes against that grain. Europeans are much more like Americans than we are like them and they use our innovations in all fields, not us theirs.
This is American Exceptionalism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
Barry Rubin: I cannot recall his ever quoting a European political philosopher.
Stan S: Probably true of most U.S. Presidents
No need to read any further.
As usual Prof. Rubin has caught the essence of the matter succinctly — so my opinion. Also, I find Stan S.’s reply to be respectable and worthy of consideration. For this reply I wish to express only consternation at the point where Stan S. leaves reality. Why NATO? In the the 1980s and 90s, there was reason for it. Ending it then would have left the whole of Europe hopeless exposed to the armed might, atomic and CONVENTIOAL, of the Soviet Union. The images of Hungery and the Checks later are seen often in European tv. It hits you between the eyes what a mere convential Soviet, viz., Putinette invasion means and would mean. Today I would prefer the dissolution of NATO and the formation of a European Military Union with which the USA can make treaties, etc. But, that wish is but a wish. The reality is that NATO is there, and NATO must be believable as a military deterent. That is the game that Obama must play. He must make NATO credible or its is just decoration. Do away with NATO and the Eastern Europeans could NOT defend themselves against a massive conventional attack by the Putinnette Union, e.g. Georgia’s experience. Who won that war, Mr. Stan S.? Georgia? Without international pressure, Russia would have taken the whole country–and with ease. The situation would repeat itself if Poland tried conventionally to ward off a full Russian onslaught. As to democratic German, you are, alas, ignorant. The German army of today, to be reduced more, is able to field only ca. 5000 to 6000 combat troops for foreign expeditions. The army of Germany is not now, as it was in 1989, constucted to fend off a land evasion from the East. Austria (you know where they speak Austian) has effectively no army any more– more like a national guard. There is NO way, without support by American armed forces (and the Putinnette Union’s fear thereof) that Eastern Europe can defend itself against a convential attack and, alas, NATO as it now stands is all there is. By the way, Russia has threaten the Poles with atomic weapons. I have seen interviews in German tv of very freightened Eastern Poles who would be the first annihilated by the Putinnette army and have no wish to go up in nuclear flames. Getting Poland to cooperated was no easy job for the Bush administration. Without belief in reliable support from America, Eastern Europe will return to the “Russian sphere of interest”. And that is what Putin wants! If the USA needs to station rockets in Eastern Europe for defense against possible Iranian adventures, then the USA needs Eastern Europe. If flip-flop Obama sows doubt in the minds of the Eastern Europeans, Putin will have reduced the USA to a toothless tiger and America will be without a necessary defense. But what does this have to do with Obama’s “slip” on “Polish death camps”?
I would like to suggest to Stan S. that he seeks via “feeling” to feel what the Poles went through. Turn to internet and seek “Gorecki, Third Symphony, Song of Sorrows”, particularly the version that begins with a view of Ausschwitz (which apparently Obama’s grand-uncle helped to liberate (sic)). The “Song of Sorrow” has been adopted for a film on the Holocaust. But it entails more. It starts with Ausschwitz (where for the first time ever Polish musicians play in that “death camp”). However the song also focuses upon a non-Jewish Polish girl caught in a Gestapo prision and the words she scratched on the wall of the “death” prision. Those “death camps” were not Polish, rather German Nazi camps!!! This is not a minor feeling here for me. Some thug with my last name wrote “Die Fahne Hoch” for the Nazis. I have spent decades trying to understand how Nazis could kill Poles, Jewish and non-Jewish, not to speak of Russians. I am not a German citizen, but my grandparents were. I am an expert in German philosophy and literature and spend much time in Russia. Everyday on German tv I watch documentaries on the Nazi period, including interviews with the living misery left in those who survived and what it was like in a “death camp”. With much timidity, I have gained some insight into what the term “death camp” means to Eastern Europeans (also to right feeling Germans). To “mistakenly” designate the “death camps” as “Polish” is a disasterous as it would be to say that Dr. Mrtin Luther King was a black “racist” (whoops, teleprompter error). Obama has offended Poland gravely, be it only a matter of “feelings”. Obama’s ignornace of European history may explain the telepromoter slip of intelligence. It does not soothe the feelings that Poles and Jews of Polish dissent, which I believe entails Prof. Rubin. (I suspect that Prof. Rubin lent expression to his “feelings” by listing Jews murdered in a “Polish” (sic) death camp.He was not forgetting nor considering Obama’s “slip of tongue” as a mere faux pax, nothing serious.)
I conclude my “short” reply to only one small part of Mr. Stan S.’s refutation or critique of Prof. Rubin with the, perhaps vain, hope that Stan, perhaps via Gorecki’s music, can grasp, however distant, what it means to have one’s country associated with a “death camp”. If Mr. Stan can do that, he might have some inkingly of the catsophropic ignorance of Barry Hussein Obama (whoops, I mean Barack).
To that end, if we dissolve NATO, you’ll see Poland and the former Soviet Republics drop out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and start building nuclear arsenals of their own to defend against Russian aggression. Russia is powerful, but mighty vulnerable to nuclear weapons, what with most of their population concentrated in two cities. Sure, the Russians can wipe out any country that uses nuke against them- after most of their invasion force has been vaporized or given a fatal dose of radiation, and there’s no guarantee that the targets of Russian aggression wouldn’t launch a simultaneous strike on Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Put the crack pipe down and slowly back away.
Obama was raised by socialists, sought out their company in college, surrounded himself with them in public office, his rhetoric and actions sound exactly like PSL, OWS, Wobblies, ect. Thus it is important to look at how he views the old east block countries and what they went through. He gave a medal of freedom to a famous socialist just a few days ago but would not let a Polish hero accept that same medal because he was too political. Someone who literally fought for freedom in Poland.was too political but a famous socialist was totally cool.
Maybe Obama was afraid it would expose how the left and his socialist buddies have stolen the word, solidarity.
Since Obama has refused to release his transcripts, there’s no evidence he ever took Western Civ 101. So, it’s quite likely that any college freshman who actually did take the course knows more about European history than Obama. Show his transcripts and prove me wrong.
About the time Obama was going to college, the clants from Leftists was “Hey hey, ho ho, Western Civ has got to go!” It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he never took WS 101. His repeated demostrations of ignorance on the matter seems to support my assertion.
Since Obama admits that all he’s doing is reading whatever is displayed on the teleprompter, the people who write the scripts are really running the country. Figuratively, Obama is just phoning it in. The difference is that he’s spending $180,000 per flying hour riding around on Air Force One to phone it in.
Goodness, Stan has certainly put on a display of ignorance!
that Obama decided to cancel the placement of U.S. defensive missiles in Poland and Czech Republic on September 17, 2009. Far from it. He did so because he knew full well the significance of that date in Central Europe, that it was the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, the Baltic States, and other countries in the region.
That’s Obama’s spiteful, vicious character on display for all to see, and it wasn’t lost on Poland any more than Obama’s remark about “Polish death camps” was yesterday. He stabbed Central Europe in the back, and by deliberately picking that date, gleefully twisted the knife in the wound.
The sooner Prof. Rubin realizes this trait of Obama’s, the better his writing on such matters will become.
Americans have not been properly taught about the Cold War or the history of Central Europe, according to the late Jean-Francois Revel. His book How Democracies Perish should be taught in every high school and college, but of course it is not. See http://clarespark.com/2011/04/09/jean-francois-revel-and-father-mapple/. Why not? Because the “liberal anticommunists” are better described as Stalinoids, as opposed to their Maoist Communist brethren who continue to hang tough as Third Worlders or “internationalists” like POTUS.
RE: “This article is dedicated to the memory of …”
Were these people relatives?
In 1987 Allan Bloom wrote a book called The Closing of the American Mind.
Obama and the majority of his advisers, should do themselves a huge favour , and read it…
Let’s get down to basics. I have read that Obama was a political science major in at Columbia. We can safely assume that he was stoned most of the time at Punahou and at Occidental. We cannot safely assume that he was not stoned during his time at Columbia. He has told us he spent his time with Marxists, feminists and the like. Since he has chosen to not reveal his college grades and since he has admitted that he was a beneficiary of “affirmative action,” we can further assume that he was not very educated when he got to college and did not learn very much when he was there.
He studied law at Harvard and hung around with more Marxists, feminists, and leftist professors. He wrote next to nothing (and I’m being generous) at the Law Review. Law school is quite narrowly focused.
After Harvard, there was Community Organizing in Chicago, part time teaching, avoiding academic involvement with academic colleagues (see comments by Richard Epstein), Trinity United, and preparation for politics.
Hence, “57 states,” “corpseman,” “the Austrian language,” and other gaffes.
Barry’s term, “credentialed ignoramus,” perfectly describes Obama!! He is credentialed but minimally educated.
I would only add that it is not at all clear that his father was African. His father was most probably Frank Marshall Davis (Google Barack Obama, Sr. and Davis and look at their respective photos. The truth will hit you between the eyes!) In my view, as a pyschiatrist, together with research reports, the absence of a father and/or the uncertainty as to the identity of his father, had a devastating effect on Obama’s psychological development – and we, in turn, are experiencing the consequences of that situation ourselves. In addition, of course, there was the maternal absence during Obama’s adolescence.
I suppose we are fortunate that he is not even more pathological than he is.
Obama, like his AG, is a consummate racist, sees everything through the glasses of race, and without any exaggeration sees all whites, all Europeans, as the same, the distinctions not worth wasting his breath over.
Mr Rubin said, “And frankly he doesn’t care.”
And that, my friends, has been the focus of my dislike for him from the day he appeared in the national spotlight.
It’s not that he’s a socialist, or a card-carrying Marxist or any of the other things. It’s not that he blabbers on incessantly and accuses all his enemies of making his job hard. It’s that he doesn’t care.
He doesn’t care to be self-critical, doesn’t care to look deeper into facts, doesn’t care to try to understand anything beyond his shallow, self-involved world.
I almost vomited when I saw the video of him during the unveiling of the portraits of George W and Laura Bush in the white house. Obama made three comments, two of which were about himself. 1) He said something gracious about the former president and first lady…but again, as regards to himself and the comments Bush made to him during the transition, then 2) he made a smart-ass remark about how Bush “left him” a neat cable TV sports package in anticipation that he, himself would watch it and then 3)”I do”.
He could’ve done a number of things but instead, he focused on himself, not the former president and first lady. He never understands that just because he’s at the podium, it doesn’t make everything about him.
His use of the first person at any appearance he makes is appalling and adolescent.
“Twentieth-century European history showed twice — against Nazism and Communism — the need to stand up to dictators, to be tough, to show one’s credibility, to be ready to go to war, to understand that ideological extremists cannot be bought off or charmed into moderation.”
Nobody knows this better than the mullahs in Iran. They see us now as incredibly weak, even though we have an army in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. Did you ever think that Obama would use the fact that Afghanistan is on the border with Iran and that we could actually threaten Iran if it tried to dominate the region? We have troops and planes based in Afghanistan and threatening Iran’s flank with these forces could be very useful, IF we had a president who understood realpolitik and the world of global power politics.
But no, Obama not only does NOT use our military to his advantage, but he’s broadcasting to the Iranians and the Taliban that he can’t wait to run away from Afghanistan. Face it, folks, Obama has no intention to standing up to the Iranians, ever. The last thing he wants is another confrontation with Iran, especially before an election.
Obama has always seen foreign policy as a “distraction” from his social-welfare agenda and the fool doesn’t realize that he’s only making the world much more dangerous in ignoring foreign policy. Obama also adores the idea of cutting massive funds from the military because it means more money to be flushed down the toilet of even more government programs, like Solyndra or the “stimulus” that stimulated nothing. At heart I’m sure Obama is an isolationist and could really care less about the rest of the world. And even when it comes to black Africa, what did Obama do? He sent 100 (yes, that’s right, 100) troops to Uganda to help prop up that government. He also did absolutely nothing to help the people in the Sudan. So much for being an “African”-American. And the only reason he helped get rid of Gaddafi in Libya was because the British and the French wanted him to, NOT because the United States had an urgent national interest in getting rid of Gaddafi. No, Obama is an isolationist and his glaring lack of interest and knowledge in both European and glabal history is amazing. And this ignorance could also get us unneccessarily dragged into yet another war. Countries only get threatened by other countries if they think you are too weak, never because you’re too strong and are willing to use that strength.
Here is what I want to know.
Who are the morons that write Obama’s teleprompter messages?
He claims He is a better policy-maker than His advisors, and a better speechwriter than His speechwriters.
I therefore suspect that most of His gaffes are self-inflicted.
cheers
eon
“He doesn’t care” hits the mark pretty well. He doesn’t care because he doesn’t see the Poles as important. To him all Europeans are the same and and to him they are just one big blurry mass of white people.
Can you imagine the massive response had Bam similarly offended our beloved tinkerbell community?
Nonsense. Obama understands the world perfectly well as a realist pragmatic guy at the helm of a relatively weakened super power and he acts accordingly. He is steering the US foreign policy towards asia where the bulk of economic and military power resides. Any one who does not see it is an idiot.
“Any one who does not see it is an idiot.”
Ah, the liberal “tell”. Ad hominem attacks flow like water.
Wait for the day when he calls Aushwitz a Jewish Death Camp.
And wait for the day when the FEMA camps are fully operational. They will truly be American Death Camps.
This is a bit paranoid but considering that these diplomatic speeches are heavily vetted by professionals this was probably among the Obama types an acceptable formulation and still is.
We are forgetting that among the left, Israelis are the new Nazis. The historical fact of Nazism is being replaced with the ideological idea that people without the correct ideas or who do not bow down to those who have them are the modern day Nazis and fascists. If you are someone who believes that then the death camps are Polish in the sense that they were on Polish soil and which government actually operated them is immaterial. What is material is that the wrong sorts of people had power. Obama is really saying that he doesn’t care what the historical Nazis are (and neither should anyone in the room)but that we know and care who the right people are and what happens when they do not have power. Like everything else it is about him.
I’m sure he privately quotes Marx all the time.
Groucho maybe…
Please don’t insult Groucho.;-)
Although The One’s grasp of geopolitics does remind me rather irresistibly of Rufus T. Firefly in Duck Soup.
cheers
eon
Indeed, Groucho was the master of innuendo…”Love flies out the door when money comes innuendo.”
A slicker zing-meister there will never be.
“Remind me next time I see you not to talk to you.”
An all-time favorite.
Mine is;
He was born half-witted and he’s been losing ground ever since.
Which sort of describes my estimate of TOTUS, actually.
cheers
eon
I think we should be reminded of Dr. Johnson dog: it doesn’t walk on its hind legs well, but the trick is that it does it at all.
All Obama has ever been is a Leftist mascot: Sowell refers. It was common in the old USSR for party leaders to get lost and read their speeches twice. Note that many eyes read the words and they all kept silent; what are the odds of a total miss?
On a more pleasant and darker note (can I say that) remember when DoS set up President Carter with a bad Polish translator.
I suggest that team Obama is working on a narrative showing Obama as a crude bungler, to save their reputations: for me this gag is excellent tradecraft.
The best trick is not throwing glitter, but helping them in their folly without showing you hand.
Obama only cares about how history will view his greatness.
Obama’s comment was more about Poland’s kicking Monsanto out then his lack of tact or knowledge.
No more GMO foods for the Polish people. The world needs more examples of countries doing the right thing.
I happen to be reading a memoir by Karl Dedecius, who led the the German Polish Institute in Darmstadt for many years. Dedecius,an ethnic German from Lodz who became a champion and translator of Polish literature in post-war Germany, titled his 2006 memoir “A European from Lodz.”
One of the important stories that is missed by someone who knows little about central Europe is that of the long, difficult, and finally successful reconciliation between Poland and Germany, a cause to which Dedecius dedicated his life.
I recommend reading Polish author Czeslaw Milosz. I began with “The Captive Mind”, and now I am reading “To Begin Where I Am.
Well, NO!, the nazi death camps could never have happened without Hitler’s WILLING executioners. The pollack government AND the pollack population. How many death camps were there in occupied Scandinavia? My aunt was a war bride. She said that hitler was AUSTRIAN. Right. NOT a German, nothing to do with her. But obama’s parentage has everything to do with him. Daddy’s little boy swallowed daddy’s philosophy. Don’t think, just agree with daddy. The British thought his grandfather to be the White man’s burden? Return the bust. See the unequal distribution of wealth? Become a socialist. Nevermind that the former USSR went down the drain, the people who said we Capitalists would sell them the rope with which they would hang us. In the REAL world, they could not afford to buy that rope.
Well, NO!, the (N)azi death camps could never have happened without Hitler’s WILLING executioners.
Yes, those would have been the SS (Schutzstaffel), specifically the Totenkopfverbande (Death’s Head Detachments). All of the above were “Aryan” ethnic Germans, and Totenkopf, the most secretive of the SS units, and the one responsible for running the death camps, was composed entirely of Germans who could “prove” pure Aryan ancestry at least ten generations back. (Its name was taken from the Prussian Hussar units of Frederick the Great’s time.) Poles were considered Slavs, and therefore ineligible to join the SS on that count alone.
How many death camps were there in occupied Scandinavia?
None. Nor were there any in Germany itself. The camps in Germany were koncentrationslager, concentration camps, used for the detention of “enemies of the State” the Nazis weren’t necessarily out to kill ab initio. If, however, they died of “natural causes”, like starvation or poor medical care, tough s#!t.
The death camps were in Poland for reasons of security; the Nazis felt they could control movement of people and information better further from Western Europe, which even they privately admitted was crawling with Allied covert ops personnel, over and above the various Resistance movements. As for the Polish resistance, the Home Army repeatedly told London about the camps, but nobody believed them until about the end of 1943.
As for Scandinavia, Denmark did its best to hide the local Jewish population, or get them to safety, even before being invaded. In Norway, the same thing happened, in spite of Vidkun Quisling’s Fascist (willing) puppet government. Turning Jews over to the SS is in fact one of the charges that was brought against Quisling in his trial for treason in 1946, which ended in his conviction and execution.
(H)itler was AUSTRIAN. Right. NOT a German
Correct. But he was, in his own mind, a Pan-Germanic hero. In World War One, he narrowly escaped being arrested for desertion from the Austrian Army for failing to answer his draft call-up while living in Germany. In the end, the Austrian Army relented and let him join a Bavarian regiment, instead. The rest is, unfortunately, history.
Oh, and PS- even though I’m not even partly Polski, I find the term you used for Poles very offensive. As, I suspect, most other posters here do. Please don’t use it again.
clear ether
eon
The Polish Government in Exile commanded the AK, which fought against the death camps and the Nazi regime. Don’t you DARE speak of the German and Communist puppet governments as Polish. Don’t you DARE mock the sacrifices of the brave members of the AK and the Polish Air Force. Do you want to know why the death camps were in Poland and not Scandinavia? It’s because Hitler saw Poland as a dumping ground for so-called undesirables. Poland is, after all, Slavic, not Aryan like Scandinavia. Hitler was all about the blue-eyed blonds, not the green-eyed brunettes, and he didn’t feel like polluting his precious Aryan lands with death camps when they could be placed in occupied Poland instead.
What surprised me the most of about this artical and the comments was that in regard to the Polish death camp comments of Obama, that it might have just been “what was in his teleprompter” was taken as a somewhat plausible defense. Think about that for a minute, who wrote the speach and since when did we become so used to being led by morons that the fact it was on the “script” was an acceptable excuse?
The issue of Polish sensitivity over Obama’s remarks is something I can only view from outside. Everyone has the right to his or feelings, including our Arab enemies…
To the point of the piece, I don’t quite understand why Mr. Rubin, a brilliant writer, is so frustrated with Obama’s futile policies. Well, of course I do, but given that he multiplies his frustration by assuming that Obama is misguided or just naive, it’s a waste of time. Obama is no genius, but he instinctively knows what he is doing. And that’s working for the Third World, including Islamic aspirations, or creating some kind of international affirmative action program at the expense of the US, Britain, the sane portions of Western Europe, Israel, Australia, NZ, Canada, etc.
He is the President of the US from Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, circa the 1970s.
As Winston Churchill said, “Study history, study history—in history lie all the secrets of statecraft”.
Of Course Obama loathes the ‘Western’ point of view & its HISTORY, so his arrogance will manifest itself as ignorance, always, always, always!
It is TIME to end the ERROR of OBAMA.
He doesn’t know any history!
I suspect He knows Howard Zinn’s version up, down, and sideways.
And that’s one of His problems.
cheers
eon
Good article. I’m facing a few of these issues as well..