RUTHFULLY YOURS

To a great many Americans, President Obama’s response to the Libyan crisis has been puzzling. First, dithering. No response. The White House claimed “scheduling problems” for the president’s no-show. Then, wimpy calls for Libyan government restraint and an end to the violence, never mentioning the “mad-dog” tyrant by name. Then, finally, following the lead of normally-reluctant-to-do-anything-whatsoever Europeans, Obama declared “time for Gaddafi to go.” Then, military moves with warships. Then, Secretary Clinton says we must wait for the UN and move only in an internationally coordinated way to aid anti-Gaddafi forces. Now, Obama’s director of national intelligence tells Congress (and the entire world) that Gaddafi will win and the rebels will lose.

Still, the blood flows at Gaddafi’s orders. News leaked out nearly two weeks ago that desperate rebels were begging the U.S. for military intervention. “Send Bush,” they pleaded!

Meanwhile, back at the White House, where the cowboy is no longer in charge, President Obama held a Motown soiree, danced the night away, and a day later served a sumptuous lunch to the nation’s governors while giving them lots of unasked-for advice. Instead of meeting reporters head-on to talk about the Libyan crisis, Obama sent out his new press secretary to fumble the ball. Then, Obama met with the president of Mexico, again, and, no doubt, offered to sue a couple more states. Obama took one question from the American press and it was something to do with an NFL union dispute. Now, the president is off on the campaign trail and planning his basketball party.

Confusing, to say the least. Libya? What?

Sentient Americans are left wondering whether President Obama fully intends to keep the mad-dog Gaddafi in power — no matter what.

So, perhaps we should recall the troubling connections between Obama’s spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, and Muammar Gaddafi. While Wright has been absent the public spotlight for most of the past two years, Louis Farrakhan has been quite present. While Obama was dancing to Motown favs, Farrakhan received notice for his customary Jew-hate, insisting ^[1] that Jews — who he claims control U.S. foreign policy and banking — are trying to push us into war with his “friend,” Gaddafi.

No one ought be surprised that this sounds a lot like something Adolf Hitler would say. Farrakhan is known for his outspoken admiration of Hitler and the Nazis’ ideas on the Jews. And Farrakhan really is Gaddafi’s friend ^[2]. In 1996, Gaddafi gave $2.5 million to Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam. Thankfully, the transfer of funds was blocked by the Clinton administration. Gaddafi had also promised Farrakhan up to $1 billion in funds to “influence the upcoming presidential election.”

From Abraham H. Foxman’s statement, “The Cynical Covenant of Farrakhan and Qaddafi”:

Until now, Colonel Qaddafi announced, “Our confrontation with America was like a fight against a fortress from outside.” After speaking with Minister Farrakhan, however, “we found a breach to enter into this fortress and confront it.” Colonel Qaddafi promised that as it battles America from the inside, the NOI will eventually fulfill one of its fondest dreams: establishing a black state within America’s borders. Ever the military man, the Libyan leader also predicted that this new state will boast the “biggest black army on the planet.”

When then candidate Obama faced off with Hillary Clinton in 2008, moderator Tim Russert queried ^[3] Obama quite forcefully regarding his association with Louis Farrakhan. For those who might not recall, Farrakhan and Obama share the same neighborhood in Chicago. Along with former Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, both Farrakhan and Obama live in Hyde Park — the upscale, politically hyperactive enclave near the University of Chicago. Barack Obama’s church, under the directorship of Jeremiah Wright, Jr., awarded Louis Farrakhan  with its “Trumpet Award” for lifetime achievement in 2007.
Wright had actually turned over the Trinity pulpit to Louis Farrakhan on a number of occasions. Black Muslims are not only welcomed but play prominently in the workings of Trinity United Church of Christ — as I saw for myself when I visited there in January of 2008.

The church bookstore is filled with black nationalist literature, among which Nation of Islam books are prominently featured, especially those by Malcolm X. Wright was never coy about his “church’s” being a home for the black liberation theology ^[4] of James H. Cone. The entire offerings of his book store were aimed at the cloaking of racist nationalism with religious trappings. Jeremiah Wright, before he studied for the “Christian ministry,” earned a master’s degree in Islamic studies at the University of Chicago. Black liberation theology is, in Cone’s own words, an attempt to forge the Christianity of Martin Luther King, Jr. with the black nationalist Muslim creed of Malcolm X.

Louis Farrakhan, in early 2008, made a public announcement that he was indeed backing Barack Obama’s candidacy and throwing the weight of the black Muslim (Nation of Islam) community in with Obama. Russert asked Obama whether he would then publicly disclaim this support and formally reject it. And Obama performed one of his now all-too-familiar verbal two-steps, saying, “I have been very clear in my denunciation of Minister Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic comments. I think they are unacceptable and reprehensible […]. I obviously can’t censor him, but it is not support that I sought […].”

Careful listeners noted that Barack Obama never dropped the honorific “Minister” when referring to Farrakhan.

Russert wouldn’t let it go at that, though. He reminded Obama that his own pastor and spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright, had gone with Louis Farrakhan in 1984 to visit Gaddafi — and had later said that when Obama’s opponents found out about it, his “Jewish support would dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.”

Obama responded to this with more two-stepping: “Some of my strongest support in this campaign is from the Jewish community […] and the reason is because I have been a stalwart friend of Israel’s. I think they are one of our most important allies in the region and I think their security is sacrosanct.”

So there. Only now that Barack Obama is president of the United States, that fervent statement of support for Israel seems a bit insincere to say the least.

And now that the entire Middle East is a roiling cauldron of unrest, Barack Obama’s leadership seems to be AWOL. Israel’s security very much depends upon which forces emerge victorious in the various countries in her region. And Barack Obama’s actions regarding Farrakhan’s friend, Gaddafi, now seem questionable at best.

As a citizen, I am now asking whether we Americans should not have been so quick to discount all those troublesome associations of Obama’s. In reality, his actions as president, especially regarding foreign policy, seem to be much more in keeping with those “God damn America” proclamations from Wright and those anti-Semitic Muslim diatribes of Farrakhan’s than they are with Obama’s stated denouncements of both.

This is not looking good. In world affairs, there is truly nothing worse than an adolescent mindset coupled with enormous power. It’s rarely a good idea to give one’s car keys to the local gang leader.