(Strasbourg, France) After his London visit for the G20 summit, President Obama headed to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting in Strasbourg to weigh in on the controversy regarding the next NATO Chief.
While Obama didn’t touch on the personnel debate in his first two public appearances today, he told a Strasbourg town hall session that one of the tenets of the new U.S. foreign policy is to show “greater respect” for Muslim sensitivities.I have no idea what that is supposed to mean but maybe it has to do with the act of reaching out. As an example, Obama goes to Turkey next week as the guest of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
... to reach out to Muslims alienated by President George W. Bush’s anti-terror campaign and Guantanamo Bay prison camp.So, it appears that the Obama administration ties together respect for sensitivites with reaching out to alienated people. From a nuts and bolts perspective, it would be nice to know what all that means.
To help, let's try an exercise using the Obama political formula. Take the Taliban. The group and its members are alienated Muslims due to the United States' (not George W. Bush's) anti-terror campaign. The alienated Taliban are sensitive about females being schooled, in fact, they burn down the schools and kill the teachers. Therefore, applying the Obama formula, the U.S. will approve of not educating girls and all actions necessary to prevent any girls schools from operating.
We could apply the Obama formula to another sensitivity of Muslims -- free speech. Muslims have no use for free speech and they'll kill to back up their beliefs. Respecting this sensitivity would mean that Obama will approve of significant restrictions on free speech. Sure, that would be contrary to the Constitution but how else would Obama show "greater respect" for the sensitivity of Muslims wanting to eradicate free speech.
Respect for the sensitivities of the alienated -- mission under advisement or political smoke-blowing? Readers can decide.
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