"Swear allegiance to the flag, whatever flag they offer. Never hint at what you really feel. Teach the children quietly, for some day sons and daughters, Will rise up and fight while we stood still.” Mike and the Mechanics, "Silent Running”
April 8, 2015
By: Linda Case Gibbons
I can’t remember the president ever looking this happy before. Well, maybe that time he greeted Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s parents in the Rose Garden, you know, after he freed five terrorists from Gitmo in exchange for Bergdahl.
This week at the Summit of the Americas in Panama the president was beaming, anticipating being able to press the flesh with Cuban President Raul Castro.
During the meeting, Obama pulled out all the stops to please the other attendees, and please them he did.
For starters, he made it clear he wasn’t one of "them,” meaning "us” – stinking Yankees, imperialists. And he couldn’t have looked more sincere while he assured the assembled leaders that he was fast-tracking Cuba for removal from the U.S. terrorists list.
And what did America get for all this? When it was Raul Castro’s turn, he accused the U.S. of "imperialist aggression” in Latin America and for being a force "that plundered territories throughout the Americas.”
As he aimed his insults at the United States, our president just listened.
What’s that you say? Did the U.S. president come back with a coolly calculated retort to defend America against an attack by this Communist "president”?
No, he sat there and listened, then got up and agreed with him.
So no, he didn’t defend us.
"I am a student of history,” Obama said, "so I tend to actually be familiar with many of these episodes that have been mentioned. I am the first one to acknowledge that America’s application to concern around human rights has not always been consistent.
"I’m certainly mindful,” he said, "that there are dark chapters in our own history in which we have not always observed the principles and ideals upon which the country was founded.”
Now to say the least it’s embarrassing when he does this in public. Not his saying he "knows his history.” We know he doesn’t. It’s when he attacks our country in the presence of our enemies.
Why does he do it? It’s simple. He agrees with Castro. Castro’s comments are the same type of comments Obama has made every time he speaks about our country.
Plus he was probably flattered. Castro blasted the U.S., but absolved Obama of U.S. transgressions and Obama liked that.
You’ve heard him. Obama often says he was "just a kid” when all this "stuff” went down, "stuff” being what you and I might call "history,” so it’s never his fault and Castro said as much.
"All of the previous U.S. presidents are indebted to us, but not President Obama,” who is an "honest man with a manner about him that speaks to his humble origins,” he said.
Now, that had to make Obama feel good, especially coming on the heels of the Ayatollah Khomeini calling him a liar.
Especially when the imam tipped Obama’s hand for him and disclosed what wasn’t in the Iranian Nuclear deal, which was everything Obama said was in it.
But, back to the Summit.
The president was in his element amongst dictators, among countries like Cuba and Venezuela who are standard-bearers for the cause of human rights abuses.
There was no mention by the president, nor was there offence taken at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s speech in which he also criticized and condemned the U.S.
"I respect Obama, but I do not trust him,” Maduro said. "I’m an admirer of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. We’ve never been against the U.S. We’re anti-imperialist.”
Yeah, Obama had nothing to say about that, and neither did the British-born Clapton.
Our president was happy and it was indeed a contrast, the contented look on his face when among Communists and America-haters, versus the stern and brimstone-and-fire face he wore at the recent Easter Prayer Breakfast. That was the occasion he chose to weigh in on a serious subject.
It wasn’t to mention the 150 Christians killed in a Kenyan University by terrorists. Not the Coptic Christians beheaded in February. No, it was to take Christians to task, for their transgressions.
And when you think about it, what better place to lecture Christians on the error of their ways than an Easter Prayer Breakfast? He did it back in February at the National Prayer Breakfast when he told Christians to come down off their high horses.
"On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Obama said. "And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.”
He didn’t tell Raul Castro how concerned he was about the state of Christianity in Cuba, where religion is state-controlled and only five percent of the predominantly Catholic country attend mass.
His comments, in essence, in his "Prayer Breakfast” speech, told the likes of Raul Castro that Obama was on his page.
Up until now, it was merely the subject of science fiction, a "World Order,” the annihilation of "Sovereign countries,” citizens fighting to keep their freedom and their country intact, manipulation of the world’s economy.
Up until now lyrics like "Silent Running,” about a time-travelling man who warns his wife and kids to be prepared for the anarchy and breakdown of society that is to come.
But there’s no denying that it looks suspiciously like the new "World Order” envisioned for the United States keeps a’rolling along with a lot of help from its friends.
The only thing missing is a vision of the Statue of Liberty, broken in two, lying on her side in a stark landscape which is devoid of life after a global thermonuclear war.