Wednesday, August 13, 2014
From: Gary L. Bauer
Quo Vadis, Barack?
For those not familiar with Latin, the phrase means, “Where are you going”? The president of the United States is often referred to as the leader of the free world. But neither our friends nor our foes know where he will lead us next.
Earlier in the week, NBC’s Chuck Todd said, “I’ve been trying to figure out [Obama’s] doctrine now for six years. He doesn’t have one. … It’s almost like he pushes and pulls… And he goes back and forth…” And so it seems with Iraq.
Todd is right. Far from operating on a coherent, strategic policy based on the view that America has a role in the world, i.e., leading the free world, world events seem to be leading Obama.
Remember that Obama vowed repeatedly to end the war in Iraq and get us out, never to return again. But as the situation deteriorated, he had to send in “advisors.” Then we started dropping humanitarian aid. Then bombs. He is finally doing the right thing — sort of.
Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that the Pentagon is weighing plans for massive rescue mission of the Yazidis trapped on Mt. Sinjar. According to the Journal, there could be as many as 35,000 Yazidi refugees there.
And more troops are reportedly headed to Iraq. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans in Erbil. Many were evacuated from Baghdad. The administration, as others have noted, can’t afford another Benghazi.
When Obama took office, he enjoyed the goodwill of the American people and fawning adulation of the media. He promised to “fundamentally transform America” domestically and internationally.
His foreign policy, as best as I can tell, is to withdraw from the world. He began by breaking old alliances and reaching out to old enemies, who still remain enemies today.
The White House and its appointees at the State Department and the Pentagon seem surprised by the reality of the world. When the ex-KGB colonel invaded Ukraine, John Kerry’s incredulous response was, “That’s so 19th Century!” When Muslim radicals torched churches and kidnapped hundreds of innocent girls, we got a hashtag campaign.
Addressing a group of Marines in San Diego yesterday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “The world is exploding all over.” So much for hope and change.
Pastors, Please Speak Up!
If Obama plucks up the courage to risk a rescue operation to save the Yazidis, I will applaud him. I will pray he finds the will to see it through.
But there is a nagging question eating away at me: If the Yazidis were Christians, would Obama be rescuing them? Or does he have a higher threshold before he feels moved to help relieve the suffering of Christians compared to other religious minorities?
I think it is a fair to ask because “No Drama Obama” has been hesitant to speak, much less act, against the vicious attacks on Christians throughout Muslim-majority nations in Africa and the Middle East. This is the same president who reassured a Muslim audience in Turkey that America was not a Christian nation.
He’s right in the sense that we increasingly reject Christian teaching on values such as the sanctity of life and the meaning of marriage. But we are a Judeo-Christian nation in that our Founders relied heavily on ideas from the Torah and the New Testament about the dignity of all men and the source of our liberty, which is God.
The president regularly speaks of the Muslim world. Does he believe there is a Christendom?
I’m not the only one bothered by the president’s indifference to Christian suffering. A few days ago, liberal commentator Kristen Powers ripped into Obama, saying:
“[Obama] has not uttered the word ‘Christian,’ and now suddenly he throws it in with the Yazidis. … The White House has done nothing; they’ve said nothing [about Christian persecution]. …
“I mean, it’s really unbelievable, and he has no right to invoke humantiarianism, because he is not a humanitarian president. A humanitarian president does not sit quietly by, while hundreds of thousands of Christians in Iraq [are uprooted or killed] — forget about the rest of the Middle East — and doesn’t say a word.”
Powers is a relatively new Christian. But she cares enough to be outraged.
A few weeks ago, thousands of Muslims and leftists gathered at the gates of the White House demanding “justice for Gaza.” Where are the pastors of America? Why are they not standing before the gates of the White House demanding justice for the Christians of Nigeria and Iraq?
Kudos To Trent Franks
A new Gallup poll finds that “dissatisfaction with government/Congress/politicians” tops the list of voters’ most pressing concerns.
I’m not surprised by the Gallup poll. I read emails from good folks every day venting their frustration with Washington. “Why isn’t anyone speaking up?” I am often asked, frequently in all caps!
My response is always the same: There are many men and women standing up for our values every day in Washington, but the media simply ignore them.
I have often applauded the dogged determination of Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, who has been a stalwart voice for religious liberty here and overseas. Sadly, he is retiring this year, but I know he won’t leave the battlefield.
Others are stepping up to continue the good fight in the halls of Congress. One of them is my friend, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, whom I have known since before his days in public office. Rep. Franks is chairman of the International Religious Freedom Caucus. I want to share with you a few excerpts of a statement he released this week:
“True leadership is not merely navigating tumultuous times. It is having the basic foresight necessary to forestall the obvious disasters on the horizon, rather than waiting until the resulting tragedy forces a response that is too little too late. …
“As the radical terrorist group ISIS … continues its rampage across Iraq, reportedly beheading children and selling women into sexual slavery along the way, a half-hearted scramble to catch up simply will not be sufficient at this point. We are witnessing a Christian genocide in Iraq and this president has a moral obligation to respond swiftly and completely to the situation his own ineptitude helped to create.”
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