Ben Shapiro
President Barack Obama has been in office for 124 days as of this writing. And he’s spent virtually all of those days telling lies, big and small, to the American people. First it was his big lie that his blockbuster stimulus plan was going to “create or save” jobs. Then it was his lie that he’d be cutting taxes for 95% of Americans – ignoring the fact that nearly 50% of Americans don’t actually pay taxes. It was his lies about shutting down Gitmo, his lies about releasing photos of Abu Ghraib, his lies about taking a stand against “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
This past week, Obama must have stumbled on to the truth serum. Because for a few shining days, Obama has actually allowed the truth to escape his lips on matters ranging from his views on foreign policy to his views on the economy.
On Thursday, Obama gave his long-awaited policy speech regarding the War Formerly Known As The War On Terrorism. And he didn’t disappoint. It was filled with his usual purposeful misstatements, of course – do we really take seriously Obama’s proclamation that he has “re-energized a global nonproliferation regime,” in the face of North Korea’s missile tests and Iran’s nuclear development? But there was a flash of veritas in Obama’s statement that “We uphold our most cherished values not only because doing so is right, but because it strengthens our country and it keeps us safe. Time and again, our values have been our best national security asset.”
Obama truly believes this. Which is utterly astonishing, since every human being with more basic intelligence than a plumbing wrench knows that Obama’s statement is utterly puerile. Our values are not our best national security asset. In times of war, our values must be compromised, as presidents from Lincoln to Wilson to FDR recognized. Only the most foolish sloganeer would honestly think that our enemies will fight us less hard if we adhere to “our values.”
Yet Obama believes in the Values Fairy – the Fairy who floats down at night, whispers sweet Constitutional nothings into Osama bin Laden’s ear, and convinces the terrorist leader that he need no longer fight those good, liberal Americans. Listen to Obama on enhanced interrogation techniques: “They serve as a recruitment tool for terrorists, and increase the will of our enemies to fight us, while decreasing the will of others to work with America. They risk the lives of our troops by making it less likely that others will surrender to them in battle, and more likely that Americans will be mistreated if they are captured.”
It is difficult to comprehend how a supposedly intelligent man can be this insipid. People are not joining al Qaeda because we dropped caterpillars into terrorists’ cells at Guantanamo. Terrorists are not more fired up about killing Americans because our soldiers waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. And there is little doubt that Daniel Pearl’s beheading had nothing to do with “walling” members of the Taliban.
Terrorists are joining al Qaeda because they do not fear America. They are joining al Qaeda because now they recognize that America is a paper tiger again, as it was under Clinton. They are fired up because they won a great battle on November 4, 2008, with Obama’s election. As for those allies who are supposedly more willing to work with us now that we’ve revealed all of our intel-gathering methods, I don’t see battalions of new troops emerging from Europe to fight in Afghanistan. In fact, Obama’s recent appeal to Europe fell on completely deaf ears.
Obama spoke the truth this week, and for the first time, Americans were alerted to the fact that this is a man who does not live in the real world. He lives in a world of his own making, where he can seriously discuss holding a “Muslim summit,” where he could “speak credibly to them about the fact that I respect their culture, that I understand their religion, that I have lived in a Muslim country …” Of course, this premise undermines the basic premise of his “our values keep us safe” logic – if Constitutional values keep us safe, why do we need to tell the Muslim world how much we understand them? Why can’t we just expect them to leave us alone? The Values Fairy will protect us, after all.
Barack Obama betrays his ignorance when he’s off the teleprompter, and when he enters into flights of fancy while on the teleprompter. The pathetic fact is, however, that that ignorance now guides this nation. And that’s the truth, too.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and HarvardLawSchool. He is also the author of Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House, as well as national bestsellers Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future and Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org
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