Obama has been to the White House before. Four years ago, he and other members of the Senate were invited for breakfast with Bush. The two men shook hands and then, according to Obama, Bush turned to an aide "who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitiser in the president's hand". Bush then offered some to Obama, who recalled: "Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt.""During his first overseas tour since being elected, President Barack Obama took time out to remind Americans and the rest of the world that the United States is not an officially Christian nation.
Speaking at a media event in Turkey April 6, Obama remarked, "I've said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is--although as I mentioned we have a very large Christian population--we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."
Not long after that, Obama went on to praise the concept of "a secular country that is respectful of religious freedom, respectful of rule of law, respectful of freedom, upholding these values and being willing to stand up for them in the international stage."
Obama noted that modern Turkey also honors secular values. The remarks were interpreted as a way to assure the Muslim world that the United States, while strongly opposing all forms of terrorism abroad, does not seek a confrontation with Islam.
Not surprisingly, Religious Right activists were outraged.
Gary Bauer sent a message to supporters of his group, American Values, asserting, "The last time I checked, the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock were Christians, not Muslims. Our Founding Fathers were inspired by the Bible, not the Koran."
Fox News Channel recruited two Republican leaders to blast Obama for the comments--and to significantly distort what he said.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been pandering to the Religious Right lately, appeared on Sean Hannity's program and said, "[Obama] went to Turkey, and I think was fundamentally misleading about the nature of America. We are not a secular country."
Later in the program, GOP operative Karl Rove spouted off, "Yeah, look, America is a nation built on faith."
In his discussion with the Sun-Times interviewer, Obama said that his "politics are informed by a belief that we're all connected." He continued:(Julian)
"I can give religious expression to that. I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, we are all children of God. Or I can express it in secular terms. But the basic premise remains the same.
Obama claims to understand at least a version of this teaching. When pressed by Brooks to describe what he extracted from Niebuhr's texts, Obama said it was "the compelling idea" that serious evil exists in the world "and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief that we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away ... the sense that we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard, and not swinging from naive idealism to bitter realism."
(In Feb., 2009, U.S. President Obama said that most U.S. forces would be withdrawn from Iraq by Aug., 2010.) The agreements were seen as strengthening Prime Minister Maliki and further undermining Moktada al-Sadr, and in the Jan., 2009, provincial elections, Maliki's coalition emerged as the strongest political grouping. In June, Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for security in urban areas; the process had begun in January.("Iraq")
Obama said that, in response to the nuclear test, the United States and its four partners in the regional talks - China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea - "have all come to the same conclusion: North Korea will not find security and respect through threats and illegal weapons."WorkCited
Moscow and Beijing issued their own condemnatory statements immediately after the test. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said May 26 that China "resolutely opposed" the test and that, in carrying it out, North Korea had "ignored [the] universal opposition of the international community."(Crail)
"President Barack Obama said that the new missile defense architecture in Europe "will provide stronger, smarter, and swifter defenses of American forces and America's allies" than the Bush-era plan.
...According to Obama, it was the unanimous recommendation of Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Their recommendation was driven in part by a new analysis of the threat posed by Iranian missile capabilities.
...The intelligence community now assesses that the threat from Iran's short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, such as the Shahab-3, is developing more rapidly than previously projected," Gates said at a Sept. 17 press conference. At the same time, Gates said, "the threat of potential Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities has been slower to develop than was estimated in 2006."
... "n his statement, Obama denied that the previous plan had been aimed at Russia but welcomed Russian cooperation in the new missile defense architecture." (Harvey)
