To Obama, they’re just “bumps in the road.” Just “noise.”
**Posted by Phineas
That’s how President Obama, in a 60 Minutes interview yesterday, tried to brush off the assaults on our embassies in the Near East and North Africa that lead to the deaths of our Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. “Bumps in the road.” Here’s the video:
I’m sure the families of the victims, as well as Foreign Service Officers in the field, appreciate the President’s description of their safety as minor traffic hazards on the way to a greater tomorrow. Not to mention the intelligence disaster we suffered. Never mind all that. “FORWARD!”
Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post writes on a second howler from this interview:
But that may not have been Obamaβs worst moment in the interview. There was this exchange:
STEVE KROFT: βYou donβt feel any pressure from Prime Minister Netanyahu in the middle of a campaign to try and get you to change your policy and draw a line in the sand? You donβt feel any pressure?β
OBAMA: βWhen it comes to our national security decisions β any pressure that I feel is simply to do whatβs right for the American people. And I am going to block out β any noise thatβs out there.βCalling Netanyahuβs concern about an existential threat βnoiseβ is another in a long string of insults, snubs and gaffes about Israel. This remark immediately raised red flags in the foreign press.The Iranians were happy, though. A reader sends me a report that at least one country is delighted. From the Iranian official TV outlet: βUS President Barack Obama says Israelβs call for drawing red line over Iranβs nuclear energy program is just βnoiseβ he tries to ignore.β Well, the Iranians got that one right. And just to rub it in, Obama knocked Israel down a peg, saying it was only βone of our closest allies in the region.β Really? Is Egypt the other? The level of disdain he holds for Israel runneth over.
Get that? To Obama, the legitimate fears of a long-time ally that it may soon be exposed to nuclear genocide is just “noise” to be “blocked out.”
“Feckless” doesn’t begin to describe Obama’s grasp of foreign affairs. “Ignorant,” “naive,” and “dangerously incompetent” start to get us close.
I believe one of the debates scheduled between President Obama and Governor Romney is devoted to foreign affairs. That should be entertaining.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)