Bankrupt Horse

By Phil Erwin

In a stunningly idiotic moment, President Obama lectured attendees at last week’s National Prayer Breakfast thusly:

Obama’s High Horse

“So how do we [reconcile with] those who seek to hijack religion for their own murderous ends? And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”

 [My emphases. And no, this was no unscripted moment; these are his prepared remarks, as can be found on the White House web site.]

I suppose this was Obama’s attempt to render murderous Islamic militants more, umm… human. More “like us.” Perhaps he thinks that if we can see them as no different from us, we’ll be less inclined to hate them.

Though, of course, they will continue to hate us with undiminished passion.

We might point out to “Professor” Obama that the Crusades and the Inquisition did, in fact, happen in “some other place” – the Middle East and southern Europe, respectively. Mr. Obama’s point might have been more historically apropos had he pointed out that the distinctly American vision known as “Manifest Destiny” was a thinly-disguised way of excusing the “displacement” of native American populations as a fate “manifest” by God.

That, at least, would have pinned the reference to the appropriate continent.

Mr. Obama seems to think that his words always have worldwide import (and also apparently believes that no one anywhere ever notices him contradict himself. Daily.) But perhaps he thought it was an Inter-National Prayer Breakfast.

Maybe that’s why he mentioned the Crusades as though they had taken place only last week on the outskirts of the National Mall.

Just so you’re clear on your geography, Mr. President: The Crusades and the Inquisition actually took place “over there,” not over here. And I realize you were not trained as an historian – I know your presumed specialty is Constitutional law (although, to be honest, many of us are wondering just how many classes you skipped.) But really, sir – has it escaped your awareness that the Middle Ages were over and done with several centuries ago?

Are you so narcissistic, you think the Crusades were just ante-Obama?

And do you honestly expect your American compatriots to accept that we, personally, should shoulder guilt for the depredations that occurred in the name of Christianity a thousand years ago?

James Woods Tweet

I don’t believe any of we present-day Americans were alive at that time.

It seems as though February is going to be a banner month for Obama-isms (like Biden-isms, only not funny). Just three days earlier, responding to the release of a video “apparently” (was there some doubt?) showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive, Obama mustered this little peach of a comment:

“Whatever ideology they are operating off of, it’s bankrupt… This organization appears only interested in death and destruction.”

“Whatever ideology?” I think, Mr. President, that we are all pretty clear on just exactly what ideology is in play here. It is a form of religious fervor called “Islamic” because it stems from notions drawn directly from Islamic teachings. And it is called “radical extremism” because it is about as radically extremist as religious fervor ever gets. It is, in fact, a throwback to the sorts of inhuman behaviors that were (as you yourself pointed out) a sometime-feature of religion-stoked sentiments in the Middle Ages, when cruelty of all sorts was commonplace in societies of all sorts. Before all the world’s major religions had eliminated cruelty as an accepted tool of evangelism.

All religions, that is, except for Islam.

And, I hasten to point out: Before the USA had been born.

“High horse,” Mr. President? There’s only one rider settin’ that saddle. And apparently it’s so high up, he’s having difficulty seeing things, and thinking, clearly.

So, Mr. President, allow me to make our shared reality clear for you, so that you might better lead our nation in her current travails:

We are in a de facto war with radical Islamic extremist terrorists, who follow a warped brand of Islamic teaching that fosters a similarly warped sense of spiritual duty called “jihad” which, in its extreme form, convinces (primarily) poor, unemployed, impressionable, unworldly youths that their God will judge their lives worthwhile, and reward them in the Afterlife, if they kill people in His name.

That is the core belief fueling terrorism centered in the Middle East, but now rearing its ugly countenance in places around the globe. It identifies the “reasoning” behind the Twelfth-Century-cruel deeds that we are witnessing daily in this Twenty-first Century. It is a religion-centric movement that threatens every society in every nation on earth, including those centered in the Middle East.

And there is only one religion cited by those terrorists.

They are not Christian terrorists. They are not Jewish terrorists. They are not Buddhist terrorists, nor Hindu terrorists; not Confucian, Sufi, Shinto, or Sihk terrorists.

The Twin Towers on 9/11/2001

Nor, to be sure, are they atheist terrorists.

They are Islamic terrorists. They [are supposed to] carry prayer rugs, and bow their heads to the East five times a day, and shout Allah Akbar! when they pull the trigger or press the button on the detonator.

Or aim an airplane at a skyscraper.

Or, for that matter, gun down their fellow soldiers on an American Army base. (A point which “your” Defense Department has finally stopped dodging.)

They are Islamic terrorists, and it appears they now exist in every nation on earth, and in every state in our Union (except maybe Alaska, where they apparently are either very adept at avoiding detection by the FBI, or very unwilling to endure frostbite while praying.) They do not “own” the religion of Islam, except in their own minds; but they most certainly claim it, and claim to follow it, albeit in a severely bastardized, dehumanized, Middle-Ages kind of way.   But it is not, Mr. President, their religion that concerns us, and threatens us; it is their intent, which is: To convert and dominate us, or kill us.

So you better come down off your own high horse, Mr. President, and get yourself clear on these facts. Because it is your responsibility to protect us, and to extend that protection to our allies. Not merely to “degrade” the threat, or to retard its advancement. You are to preserve our freedoms and protect our Constitution, and in so doing, ensure our nation’s future.

That is what we hired you to do. And thus far, sir, you are failing.

Miserably.

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Phil Erwin is an author, IT administrator and registered Independent living in Newbury Park. He sometimes wishes he could support Democrat ideals, but he has a visceral hatred for Lies and Damn Lies, and is none too fond of Statistics. If his writing depresses you, he recommends you visit Chip Bok’s site for a more lighthearted perspective.

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