Obama's Egyptian Speech: Ya! But....

I love a good speech. And President Obama’s Egyptian speech was a good speech. It was carefully crafted. It was obviously directed towards the intended audience. It used phrasing and nuances to appeal to Muslim sensibilities. I enjoyed listening to the historical references containing things every American should know, but doesn’t. It was boffo across the board. It gets 10 very well earned style points. Unfortunately, when it was over, the first thing that came to my head was “Ya! But…”

Republicans will make much of Obama saying the following:

“I know there has been controversy about the promotion of democracy in recent years, and much of this controversy is connected to the war in Iraq. So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other.”

I opposed George Bush’s democracy push. His theory was that sooner or later public opinion would steer a particular country into the right direction. Maybe. The problem is what happens while waiting for the sooner or later. Trying to blanket a country in democracy whose tradition is steeped in authoritarianism makes election outcomes resemble Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates…you never know what you are going to get. A case in point is Venezuela whose population voted Hugo Chavez President for life. Of course, they have another way of changing governments which is a bit more hands on, for lack of a better expression. Russian democracy is also interesting. I am not sure what has emerged there, but it apparently works for them.

Obama’s approach is to encourage justice. He said: “That does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people. Each nation gives life to this principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people.” I agree.

Ya! But…what’s the point? The guys with the guns and the bombs have a different view. Obama’s approach to evil in the world is a study in naiveté. His words won’t change the mind of one Al Qaeda terrorist, or close one madrasah in Saudi Arabia, or inhibit the development of nuclear weapons in Iran, or soften the heart of one member of Hamas. There are plenty of good, moderate Muslims in countries like Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Turkey...and they have had no effect at all on Islamic extremists.

All people yearn for peace and freedom, or at least a peaceful and prosperous existence. But it just takes a few whackos to screw up the works. The family of nations has been able to do nothing to stop North Korea in its development of nuclear bombs and the missiles to deliver them, nor will they. It takes guts, courage, and strength to swat the hornet. If you don’t kill it early, pretty soon you will have a hive which is much more difficult and dangerous to eradicate. Nothing will happen with rogue nations and nuclear weapons until millions of people are dead under a mushroom cloud, whether in the United States, or Asia, or Europe, or Israel, or the Mideast.

The bad guys know this. Unfortunately, for all of the platitudes and idealic concepts in Obama’s very wonderful speech, all the bad guys will see is weakness. The speech was a home run for academics and for most decent and caring people around the world like you and me, but the President dude was preaching to the choir. At the end of the day, it may hasten the violence that is coming from the extremists of the world. They would like nothing better than to stop Obama’s train its tracks. In fact, Obama's hyping our so called torture and Gitmo in the speech may actually fuel, at least in their minds, justification for their actions.

For me, I would be just as happy if President Obama, at some time in his presidency, would finally realize not all of the rest of the world thinks like us, or has our values. They don't. Great speech. Ya! But...