Barack Obama may be all talk, but talk is what wins the hearts and minds, to use a cliche. His recent message, included after the jump, on the Muslim month of Ramadan shows his commitment to re-engage the Muslim world.
His knowledge and apparent respect of Muslim traditions, coming from the President of the United States, is a very important step, in continuation of his speeches in Cairo and Ankara, to build a momentum of peaceful relations with the Muslim world.
Of course, Bush also extended his wishes on the occasion of Ramadan every year, but his remarks were usually very generic and hardly anything more than window-dressing. Obama’s message is different.
Conservatives will no doubt declare this to be another part of Obama’s appeasement towards “Islamists,” whatever that term really implies. But the reality is that unilateralism can never triumph over anything. Even the Cold War wasn’t won by Reagan alone. Nor were any battles, whether physical or psychological.
The US needs allies. What better allies than Muslims and Muslim countries in fighting against terrorism emanating from those environs?
If it were not for his far-left social and economic agendas, I could actually like this guy.
Text of the speech is available on the White House website [PDF].
