Public Comment

The Al-Iraq newspaper, in a blanket condemnation of America, declared: "America is on fire and behind this fire were a thousand, a million, or even a billion hands — for the savage, arrogant America, which is afflicted with megalomania, caused all peoples of the world to suffer from humiliation, starvation, and terrorism." 

"One of the greatest sources of pride for past and present U.S. administrations," according to Iran's Resalat newspaper, had been "their ability to prevent the people inside their country from directly experiencing the horrors of the battlefronts." 

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the French newspaper Le Monde editorialized that then-president George W. Bush "swore to make the national territory a sanctuary by placing it under the shelter of an antimissile shield." Mayor Giuliani of NYC himself in the aftermath of 9/11 urged the public to head out and enjoy New York City's cultural resources. 

Some dire politician pundits may have supposed that the electorate could be churned up enough about foreigners in their midst that the hopes of a President (whose middle name is Hussein) at the (now concluded) Congressional "mid-term" elections might be dashed. Yes, the Republicans became the masters in the House of Representatives. And in several statehouses the Democrats were booted. For example, in Oklahoma, a Republican was elected Governor. And for the first time a woman will hold that office.  

Sharia law was also banned in Oklahoma — as was international law — by a resounding vote of the electorate. 

Andrew Carnegie, who contributed to the relief efforts for the Jews massacred in Russia in 1905, came out vigorously against attempts to restrict Jewish immigration to America.  

"I think the Scotch a pretty smart people, but I must say the Jews are smarter," he said. To which the European Jew and Carnegie's friend, Isidor Straus, standing next to him on the platform) responded: "You needn't worry, we Jews are not likely to invade Scotland — that is the only country in which we cannot live."  

Indonesia and India, two of the countries on Obama's itinerary, have 200,000,000 and 150,000,000 Muslims, respectively. Meanwhile, the largest U.S. Air Force base located abroad is at Doha, Qatar. Five hundred U.S. Navy ships have stopped at Dubai, United Arab Emirates (so far) in 2010.  

There are another 15,000 Muslims in Oklahoma. To them, I can only repeat Rick's line from the movie classic Casablanca: "The lives of three little people don't mean a hill of beans in this crazy world."  

And let's hope Obama can work out a SOFA agreement with the new Oklahoma Governor. 

While avoiding excesses, we need to apply effective measures in the fight against terrorism. In 1950, the authors of NSC-68 wrote that by 1954 the Soviet Union would be able to deliver 100 atomic bombs to the American homeland: "A free society is vulnerable in that it is easy for people to lapse into excesses — the excesses of a permanently open mind wishfully waiting for evidence that evil design may become noble purpose, the excess of faith becoming prejudice, the excess of tolerance degenerating into indulgence of conspiracy and the excess of resorting to suppression when more moderate measures are not only more appropriate but more effective."