“Unwarranted Self-Abasement”

By Bruce Thornton,FrontPage Magazine

Sec. Clinton with new "Climate"envoy Todd Stern

George Bush’s vigorous defense of our national security and vocal pride in our values and goodness went a long way to getting rid of the “kick me” sign liberal America has hung on our collective back. You know,that reflex of guilt and shame about our society and history,that eager rush to apologize for our presumed sins,that willingness to blame ourselves for the world’s ills and take seriously the self-interested slanders of states whose record of dysfunction and crime outstrips ours by miles. But now here comes Barack Obama,who for all his obligatory praise of America––most of it predicated on the fact that he was elected––so far seems eager to don once again the hair shirt of American sin.

Take one of the reasons for closing down Guantanamo:that it will enhance our reputation in the world,sullied by George Bush and his regime of secret prisons,torture,and violation of international norms. The Muslim Middle East,so the argument goes,has been enraged by these practices,and this anger creates support for the jihadists. So according to this view,we’re supposed to take seriously the criticisms of peoples whose own governments regularly torture and abuse dissidents,provide money for terrorist murderers,and don’t even acknowledge such things as human rights? Or we’re supposed to credit the opinion of those Muslims––and there are millions of them,from Spain to Indonesia–– who regularly celebrate the murder of Jews and Americans and Indians,who danced in the streets after 9/11,and who name their sons Osama and pray for the destruction of the “Great Satan”?

Read the Full Story: