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By Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry (ret'd)
CurryforAmerica.com
For some unrevealed reason President Obama finds it necessary to genuflect to the King of Saudi Arabia and then deny that he did it even though it was caught on film. Using the same rationale he did not find it necessary to bow to the Queen of England, yet just a
Few weeks ago he felt compelled to bow deeply to the Emperor of Japan petty, yes, mysterious, even more so.
Obama knows that as President of the United States when he bows or restrains from bowing to foreign royalty it sends a message. But one has to wonder what message is he trying to send? Perhaps he is indicating a change in the tone of American foreign policy signaling that the U.S. no longer intends to support the dollar as the world’s currency, or perhaps he is signaling that America has wearied of accepting the heavy responsibilities that come with being the world’s only remaining super power?
President Obama may be signaling -- as a world citizen and not as President of the most powerful nation on earth -- his personal admiration for the King of Arabia and the Emperor of Japan. At the same time others might construe his actions as sticking a finger directly into the eye of the Queen of England. Presidents George Washington, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy would have found such behavior by a President of the United States intolerable and abhorrent.
Some might suggest that Obama’s snub of the Queen is only reflective of his attempt to distance himself from our Founder’s Anglo-American history and values. In the past he has demonstrated many times in many ways that he does not value what our Founders fought so valiantly for and for what most British hold dear.
Is this why he feels and overwhelming need to placate our historical adversaries and to devalue America in the world’s eyes while at the same time elevating the values and contributions of other cultures such as those of the Middle-East or Asia. It is reasonable to wonder where Obama’s true allegiance lies, and why is it so hard for him to just be proud of America and of being the President of the United States? Why must he try to be the hope and change element for the entire world?
In one of Ronald Reagan’s most famous speeches he describes the United States as a “Shining City on a Hill,” a beacon of light, hope and freedom not just to Americans, but to the entire world. President Kennedy would probably be first to take the position that if there is any genuflecting to be done; it should not be done by America and its Presidents.
Remember, Obama’s decisions as to when to display deference and when not to display it are not accidental at all. All photo opportunities in the Obama White House are carefully planned and orchestrated. First, Obama happily bows to a “colored king,” after choosing not to bow to a “white queen.” Then just a few weeks ago he deeply genuflected to a “colored emperor”. Why? Neither he nor any member of his staff has explained the rationale for his choices to us, the American people. Surely Obama doesn’t want us to miss the subtle message he is in the process of sending around the world?
Don’t the American people deserve to be honestly told and fully informed as to why our President prostrates himself before certain foreign leaders and does not to others? What is this really all about? My guess is Obama is bowing, out of some misguided personal sense of inadequacy, self-loathing or confusion. Yet I think I can say without any fear of repudiation, that we Americans find it neither necessary nor desireable to grovel before any nation or people.
Am I reading too much into Obama’s gestures? Perhaps he simply feels that colored or male members of royalty merit bows, while white or female members of royalty do not? Perhaps it is as simple and racist and sexist as that, but I doubt it. We’re all missing something here, something important, and he needs to tell us what that is.
Race aside, had Obama been America’s first president instead of George Washington, King George III of England might never need to have worried about insurrection in the American Colonies. Obama would have led the American colonists to prostrate themselves very respectfully and to continue living in full allegiance to the British King. America would still be part of the British Empire today.
Fortunately our Founding Fathers were made of sterner stuff. In those days America’s leaders projected strength, commitment and passion, not just mere political ambition. Perhaps Obama and his followers are part of a larger problem? Perhaps it is a lack of understanding of what America is and does and who Americans really are and how our Founders viewed life and the world? Could this be why politics in the USA are so broken and petty these days?
One has
to wonder …