Gadhafi endorses Obama, and other U.N. lunacies
Examiner Editorial
September 25, 2009
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| Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi shows a torn copy of the UN Charter during his address to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) |
Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi may have rambled in near-incoherent fashion for more than an hour-and-a-half when he spoke to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday, but on one point he was crystal clear and enthusiastically applauded: President Obama is "our Obama." That endorsement came in a spleen-splitting speech that also included such gems as Gadhafi's belief that evil drug companies created the swine flu to make more money, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the Israelis who feared he would stop their nuclear program, and today's piracy off the African coast is caused by Western imperialism.
If Gadhafi's recommendations sound a bit daff, just think of who he was addressing. For several decades, the United Nations has happily hosted and thereby lent a farcical air of legitimacy to an endless parade of tinhorn dictators, genocidal killers, corrupt self-dealers, and even an armed terrorist, all masquerading as respected heads of state. And for just as many decades, a succession of American presidents and Congresses have played along with the illusion of civility, while paying the freight to keep this diplomatic freak show on the East River afloat.
It's easy to dismiss praise from Gadhafi as mere babbling, but in fact others playing leading roles on the same loony stage have also claimed to be Obama admirers, most recently the Venezuelan thug, Hugo Chavez, and the aging Cuban tyrant, Fidel Castro. One need only read the speech Obama delivered immediately before Gadhafi to understand their enthusiasm: In a continuation of his world apology tour, he obliquely endorsed some of their more direct and crudely expressed condemnations of the United States as the chief villain on the international stage.
For example, Obama told the delegates - many of whom have endlessly condemned "American imperialism" -- that "democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from the outside. Each society must search for its own path, and no path is perfect. Each country will pursue a path rooted in the culture of its people, and -- in the past -- America has too often been selective in its promotion of democracy." In fact, America has imposed its core political values on at least two countries, Germany and Japan, that had only recently allied themselves in a worldwide war of extermination against democracy. And let it never be forgotten that at the end of that same war America alone had the atom bomb and the means to deliver it wherever we chose. The world was literally ours for the taking. Instead, we mercifully bound our former enemies' wounds, liberally shared our wealth with them, and patiently showed them the path back to civilization. Why did Obama not mention this fact?
UPDATE: Obama gives tax dollars to Gadhafi kids' foundations
This is almost impossible to believe, but NRO's Andy McCarthy reports that the Obama administration is giving $400,000 to two foundations run by the son and daughter of the Libyan dictator. No, we are not making this up. Details here.
