Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stirred up controversy in the Middle East yesterday by calling the crackpot gunman charged with shooting Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords an "extremist" -- but offered no evidence of a political agenda or a cause that would drive him to violence.
"We have extremists in my country. A wonderful, incredibly brave, young woman Congress member, Congresswoman Giffords, was just shot by an extremist in our country," Clinton said during a televised town hall-style meeting at a college in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Clinton brought up the slaughter by Jared Lee Loughner when questioned about why Americans appear to blame the entire Arab world for 9/11.
"We have the same kind of problems. So rather than standing off from each other, we should work to try prevent the extremists anywhere from being able to commit violence," she said.
"The extremists and their voices, the crazy voices that sometimes get on the TV, that's not who we are, that's not who you are, and what we have to do is get through that and make it clear that doesn't represent either American or Arab ideas or opinions," added Clinton
By stating that "We have extremists in my country" and "We [U.S. and the Arab world] have the same kind of problems," the Secretary of State makes an excellent point about how much the U.S. and the Arab world have in common, the common problems we face and the effective and humane manner in which we deal with those problems. Like the U.S., the Arab world is rife with examples of groups with opposing ideas and values calmly and successfully presenting their positions to a populace that is then allowed to give their lawful consent via a popular vote. Like the U.S., the Arab world is a model of peaceful transfers of power, non-violent political activism, and a free exchange of ideas. Oh wait...
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One mentally ill person does not a Jihad make. Lets not label all who reside in the Arab world as anything but people that just want to live their lives in peace, but let's not make silly comparisons. When Tea Party or ACORN folks start running into each others meetings strapped with grenades, then maybe we can talk. Otherwise, No, Hillary, we do not have the same kind of problems.
By making the violence in this country equivalent to the violence in the middle east, Hillary has once again proved that she is not the smartest woman in the world and that she wouldn't have made a better president than Obama.
ReplyDeleteEgads! I'm shocked at the stoopid words that come out of our supposed leaders.
BTW I want to clarify that I don't think Obama is a good president either.
ReplyDeleteAJ,
ReplyDeleteOn rare occasions, you actually make sense. This was one such occasion.
Cube,
I would vote for a pet iguana over Barack Hussein Obama.