If Mr. Obama wants to use historical fictions to support a diplomatic mission, I’m willing to give him a pass. I don’t see much reason either to denigrate Arab or Islamic culture during an epoch known as the Age of Faith. It’s true that Christian monasteries preserved classical learning during the middle ages, but it’s not like Christian scholars (with a few exceptions) were doing any original thinking of their own.
I’m rather more interested in weighing Obama’s rhetoric in public against his tactics in private. It’s been reported by various CEO’s here at home that in private the president can be a bully. I can only hope that his tough guy side comes out when dealing privately with foreign enemies. I’m starting to see for the first time that perhaps our new president has at least one quality that could make of him a statesman. Does this mean I trust him? I’m totally opposed to his domestic agenda. But I’ll wait to judge his foreign policy on the success or failure of his actions. The rest it seems to me is “just words.”
