Sabbah Report » Speech

UPDATE! Video: Turkey’s PM Erdogan speech with subtitles

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:54:27 +0000

Update 1: Part two was added.
Update 2: Part three was added.

Following is ~~part one (first 15 minutes) of~~ full speech of Turkey's PM Erdogan responding to Israel's terrorist attack against humanitarian aid ships "Freedom Flotilla".

Part 1:

Video link: http://loaditup.blip.tv/file/3707889/

Code to embed part 1 in your blog:

Part 2:

Video link: http://loaditup.blip.tv/file/3708530/

Code to embed part 2 in your blog:

Part 3:

Code to embed part 3 in your blog:

Credit: Guzin Bilgi

~~PS. Part two will be added here as soon as it gets ready, so bookmark this page!~~

~~PS. Part three will be added here as soon as it gets ready, so bookmark this page!~~

You can also read the full transcript in English and Turkish here!

New speech by President Obama for real change

Mazin Qumsiyeh — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:51:22 +0000

Illustration by Carlos Latuff

By Mazin Qumsiyeh*

Speech by President Obama delivered in Congress 2010

My fellow Americans.

Millions of you and not special interest groups elected us to office on a platform of change and it is time for us all to deliver. I am laying out a program to do so but first we have to face some painful truths that have increasingly become obvious...

On the economy:

As you know, we now have the largest ever recorded debt for this government (at 11.9 trillion dollars meaning some $40,000 national debt per citizen of the USA). We have also just recorded the largest deficit in budget in history with our government expenses outpacing revenue by $1.4 trillion for the last fiscal year. The fact that our citizens and corporations are also frequently in debt to the same creditors means that those creditors hold a very strong stranglehold on our economy and our nation's future. Some of those people are individuals who have traditionally owed their office to the US government- people like royal families in the Gulf Arab states. Others have far more influence and control over International financial institutions. The future of America cannot be held hostage to those foreign interests.

A study by the economist Thomas R. Stauffer showed that the cost of the US support to Israel until 2003 was $3 trillion (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June 2003). I have asked an independent team of economic advisors (not including any supporters of Israel or of Palestinians) to evaluate these figures and the panel concluded that the figures are actually somewhat higher. Seven years ago, our country has invaded and occupied Iraq costing us thousands of American lives and over a million Iraqi lives but also costing us an additional $3 trillion (see the book by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stieglitz and Kennedy School of Government professor Linda J. Bilmes, â€œThe Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflictâ€). That we attacked Iraq in contravention of the UN charter and at the behest of a group of neoconservative Zionists is now well established (see the book by Professors Mearsheimer and Walt on this Israel-first lobby). The same lobby is pushing us for conflict with Iran which other economists estimate will be even costlier (Iran has a size and population three times that of Iraq and its military is far more advanced than Iraq ever was even before the sanctions were applied to Iraq in the 1990s). In short, our support for Israel (even excluding conflict with Iran) has cost us more than half our national debt of $12 trillion. My administration wants to get our house in order and spend and live within our means. These desires shared by most of us must now be matched by actions and I call on us in the executive branch and on both houses of Congress to get together to effect a real change that will prevent any further erosion in our economic power and slowly begin to reclaim our rights.

On national security:

My fellow Americans....I was gratified to receive the Nobel Peace Prize but getting top peace is not an easy task when dealing with a history of wars and conflicts over the past 200 years. This is especially true when we in America had a large part to play in these wars and conflicts. In 1916, the first major European war was raging and had reached a deadly stalemate with trench warfare. Germany offered a deal to end the war and the parties returning to prewar borders. But our country was approached by a group of our own citizens who as part of the International World Zionist Organization have made a different deal with Britain and France. These citizens including one previous Supreme Court Judge pressured our government to enter the war on the side of the allies who promised the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine in return for this lobbying effort. Palestine then had a population that was 93% Christian and Muslim native Palestinians. The Jules (French) and Balfour (English) public declarations of support for the Zionist project were then adopted also by the US Congress under heavy Zionist pressure. Many humanistic Jews opposed the scheme that would collect them from around the world displacing native population. Despite the majority of the US public being against us entering that European first war, our government decided to go to war based on these narrow short-term political interests. After WWII, my predecessor President Truman decided to support the Zionist project for similar reasons. This only matched his decision to use atomic weapons that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians even when he knew that surrender by Japan could have been achieved in other less deadly ways. Since 1945, we have used American military forces in over 40 countries killing millions. Today we have US troops stationed in three times as many countries. Our military uses most of our discretionary budget. We are now engaged in active hot conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Our military forces have also engaged in attacks in Somalia and Sudan in the last two years. It is not a coincidence that these are all countries in the Middle East that the domestic lobby called AIPAC has had a lot to say about long before the conflicts arose.

The security establishment now recognizes that our attacks on these countries did not enhance our security but degraded it in the long term and created a pool of millions who hate our policies. Since the events of Sept 11, 2001, the US has lost more credibility around the world as we failed to investigate the real reason behind these events or to draw the appropriate lessons. Instead our government chose to listen to foreign agendas and engage in brutal attacks on others who had nothing to do with Sept 11 using manufactured myths and propaganda that we are now resurrecting with respect to yet one more country- Iran. Surveys showed that even among our traditional allies in Western Europe, people believe the US and Israel (not Iran or North Korea) pose the most significant risk to world peace. My administration has done much to allay the fears of the rest of the world about US hegemony and intentions of unilateral dictates on their future. But our statements must be matched with actions on the ground which we have so far failed to achieve. We cannot address peopleâ€™s legitimate concerns about US policy by public relations.

Addressing these challenges:

The conundrums created by the policies cited above cannot be solved by incremental changes like stimulus packages, healthcare reforms, shuffling some troops from one country to another, or closing Guantanamo (needed as these are). The American people and the world at large look for real change and it is time to listen to them instead of Washington lobbyists. I am laying out these principles that I believe are critical to begin to achieve the change we all seek:

1- I ask Congress to dissolve the Federal Reserve (a private unelected entity of Bankers) an institution that caused great pain in our country. The Government will print its own money and this money will return to being backed by Gold. We cannot continue down the same direction that already degraded the dollar value by 40% against the leading world currencies over the past few years.

2- I have invoked my right as a commander in chief and in compliance of US law that prohibit funding violators of human rights and issued an executive order that suspended all military and economic assistance to the state of Israel (now at $3 billion is our largest foreign aid recipient) until a) it complies with human rights and prosecutes all officers who committed human rights violations (especially those using US supplied weapons and finances) and b) it complies with all relevant United Nations General Assembly and Security Council resolutions. I ask the American public to engage in discussion to expose the extent of financial loss caused to us by support of Israeli violations of these resolutions. Citizens have a right to demand transparency about who lobbies their congressional representatives and what decisions they make in Congress that benefits foreign powers at the expense of US citizens. Hillary Clinton had to step down as Secretary of State because of clear conflict of Interest issues that will be investigated involving the same foreign interests. I am pleased to report that Cynthia McKinney has accepted to be my nominee for Secretary of state.

3- I have instructed my Attorney General to create a task force to seek return and reimbursement to the American public from the World Zionist Organization and the State of Israel the massive transfer in wealth that occurred as a result of their activities especially when these activities were illegal under US laws (e.g. not registering under the congressional requirement of registration as foreign lobbies). There is now considerable evidence that the Zionist movement has accumulated hundreds of billions of dollars with schemes that are at best shady and at worst extortionist and illegal, it would be indeed possible using existing laws to seek a return of these assets. There is also evidence that some of these same money was recycled to spend on lobbying activities to and pressure tactics to get even more billions of dollars.

4- I have asked the Department of Defense to begin the process of withdrawing US troops from all 120 foreign countries they are stationed in (beginning with Afghanistan). Our budget prediction is that once this is accomplished we will be able to trim our defense budget in half saving tax payers hundreds of billions of dollars.

5- We will create two new national museums each with the same budget as the current National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The museums will commemorate the genocides (holocausts) of Native Americans and of African Americans. This will begin to heal the wounds of our world and face-up to our own historical responsibilities.

6- Where we were wrong historically we must face up to it. I have thus asked ex-president Jimmy Carter and the group of elder statesmen to lead the creation of a "Truth and Reconciliation Department" with sections to deal with all outstanding issues including Vietnam, our war and Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. The commissions created under this Department will have jurisdictions to prosecute war criminals or refer them to the International Courts as legally appropriate.

7- We will no longer support dictators and corrupt leaders. We will demand removal of dictators like Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak who has been in office for over three decades with Western support. We will support democratic elections even when parties that get elected are not supportive of Israel or the previous US policy shaped in Tel Aviv. We will instead engage in immediate talks with groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and with countries like Venezuela and Iran to build a better future for all of us inequality and we will push for democracy and support of the will of the people even when this means resistance to Israeli hegemony. As John Kennedy stated once "If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable."

8- We must focus on the daunting real challenge of our planet not the manufactured crises that special interests want us to focus on. Thus, instead of confronting Iran, Venezuela, and other nations, I am now asking those nations to join us as equals on the table to discuss climate change and fair and equitable distribution of world resources. We will together invest in alternative energy and safeguard our joint environment. And we will eliminate nuclear weapons.

9- I urge our allies to use the example we set and face to the historical injustice they have committed (e.g. European Colonization in the Americas, Africa and Asia) so that we can put these issues behind us as we focus on other pressing issues.

These changes that provide practical solutions will be resisted by the same entrenched power that created the problems. We must be courageous enough to demand real change and implement it. We recall how in our nationâ€™s history it was always people who made the change not politicians. It was the masses of people that gave the women's right to vote, and later achieved the pressure needed to realize the enactment of civil rights laws. It was massive people resistance that ended the war on Vietnam and ended US support for Apartheid South Africa. To these movements we are also grateful for the 40 hour week and for social security and for the support of education that allowed a person like me to be who we can be. I believe this is another pivotal moment in our history. As we rise to the challenge, our economical, political, and moral standing will begin to make a real turn around.

I stated before that these challenges and the changes they require are bigger than one government or one country alone can handle. People of various faiths and of all political and ethnic backgrounds are indeed joining together to address these issues. I know we can count on millions of you in America and millions abroad to join us in this historic struggle for a better future. Now is the time for real change. This is our moment. Join us. God bless you and God bless our planet.

[One can hope; if not Obama, then maybe another US president but only when and if more/enough US taxpayers wake â€“up to how they are being fleeced and cause the change... that is our responsibility...]

* Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD. A Bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home. http://qumsiyeh.org

Netanyahu Speech: Palestinian Reaction

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:45:22 +0000

Netanyahu Peace Offer by Carlos Latuff

Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of the Israeli Knesset representing the United Arab List-Ta'al party, which was nearly barred from running in Israel's last election: Netanyahu's speech is a deceptive attempt to bypass Obama's call for a complete settlement freeze. He said nothing new, but instead reiterated the racist demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. This is not only racist, but will give Israel the excuse to discriminate against more than 20 percent of its population. I hope the Americans see the speech for the deception that it is.

Mustafa Barghouthi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative and former candidate for Palestinian president: Netanyahu is attempting to mislead the world community by substituting a ghetto for a Palestinian state. He is no partner for peace. His whole speech was nothing but the consolidation of apartheid, not only in the territories but within Israel. Also, he preempted any possibility for negotiations because while he's calling for no preconditions he is simultaneously saying all of Jerusalem is Israel's capital, there will be no freeze of settlements, and the refugees cannot come home. He's clearly deciding the most important issues while claiming he's open to negotiations.

Hassan Jabareen, founder and general director of Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel: "In his speech, Netanyahu put forth all the obstacles for reaching any reconciliation. First, when he spoke of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state he neglected the status of Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel as equal citizens of the state, and therefore, he relegated them to second-class citizenship status. Second, while he mentioned the term "Palestinian state," in fact, he spoke about Palestinian autonomy and not an independent state as it would not control its borders or skies, similar to the status quo. Third, East Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees, in his vision, are excluded from any negotiation. Clearly, Netanyahu failed to recognize the Palestinians' right to self-determination.

Diana Buttu, a Palestinian citizen of Israel living in Ramallah, attorney and former advisor to Palestinian negotiators: Netanyahu offered a litany of demands that the Arabs and Palestinians must adhere to, but he failed to mention even a single statement about what Israel is going to do in order to effect peace. Even something as basic as a settlement freeze, Netanyahu refused to accept. He made it clear that what he wants to see in the future is a repackaging of the occupation in which Israel continues to control the Palestinians rather than complete Palestinian freedom. Netanyahu is trying to replace real peace with the fig leaf of an improved economic situation. His approach fails to recognize that this is a political problem requiring a political solution and not an economic problem with economic solutions."

Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman living in Ramallah: In a brief and shallow policy address at one of the most right-wing Israeli universities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visibly nervous and edgy as he reverted to sloganeering instead of accepting Israel's historic responsibility toward regional peace. Clearly aiming to appease President Obama's new thrust to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu uttered some of the words that all were seeking like peace and statehood but stripped them of substance. Netanyahu and his coalition still refuse to acknowledge that Israel is an occupying power responsible for daily war crimes and the bearer of a sophisticated ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians. The speech clearly slapped President Obama and the international community in the face and should motivate the US to finally act to bring Israel in line with international law; otherwise, the future will offer only more of the past.

Source: IMEU

Obama’s Song and Dance in Cairo

Dr. Elias Akleh — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:47:03 +0000

By Dr. Elias Akleh

Young athletic Obama reflects active energy whether running up the ladder stairs into his Air Force One plane, or giving speeches, such as the song-and-dance so-called historic speech to the Islamic World in Cairo University last Thursday June 4th.

This was a very well written speech meant to touch the hearts of Muslims by playing some of their religious tunes citing Qur'anic verses in order to re-gain their trust and their cooperation the US lost during the Bush administration.

To obtain this goal Obama's speech followed a well-defined line that started with his own understanding of the causes of the conflict between the West and the Islamic World, his intent of breaking the cycle of conflict, his seeking a new beginning between the US and the Muslim world, his assertion that he is a different president with understanding of Islamic religion, his request for equal partnerships with the Islamic governments to deal with seven major issues in order to achieve better life for all, and finally his call for the younger generations to eliminate doubt of intentionality and fear of partnership based on previous experiences in order to remake this world. In other words he is saying: there is a problem, I can fix it, trust me because I am different, here is what I want you to do to help me fix the problem, and here is your reward for doing so.

To the average person the speech looks genuine, truthful, honest, and ushers the change Obama had always talked about. Looking deeper into the speech, its hidden messages, and its meta-messages one can recognize its condescending, its manipulations, and its contradictions with the actions and decisions of Obama's administration.

It is a political naivetÃ© to believe that any US president, even black and looks different can change the American policies, either internal or foreign. Such policies are formulated by power elites in secluded meetings outside the federal compounds. All the president can do is to function as their faÃ§ade and to follow their dictates because he was hired (others may think elected) to do so.

It has been recognized that the policies of direct hard and violent military approach of fighting "Islamofascism", crusading "global war on terror", building the "New Middle East", and spreading "freedom and the American democracy", the Bush administration had adopted for the last eight years, had failed on many fronts, and succeeded only in alienating the friendly Arab regimes, building fierce military resistance, strengthening anti-American sentiments in the Islamic World in general, and causing economical crises. A new approach is needed, and Obama's change (soft manipulative approach) is introduced.

Obama acknowledged civilization's debt to Islam and that it had been a part of America's story with 7 million American Muslims and over 1,200 mosques. Obama declared that "part of my responsibility as President of the US to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam". Yet he did not put an end to federal eavesdropping on Muslims' phone conversations, the spying on mosques, the closure of Muslim charity institutions such as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Dallas and the long imprisonment judgments against five of its founders, end of May, for delivering food stuff to American recognized charities in Gaza Strip, and many similar anti-Muslim crimes in the US.

Obama confessed, implicitly, that hostility was caused by colonialism (neocons) and violent Muslim extremists (terrorists), "tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim countries were ... treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations" and "violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims". Yet he wants "this cycle of suspicion and discord must end".

Obama asked the Muslim World to discard the "crude stereotype" of America as "a self-interested empire", and requested that they partner with him in solving problems. He stated: "Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; our progress must be shared". This is the real goal of this speech; some type of partnership that serves the interests of the US as we can detect in the rest of his speech.

We see here clearly the hypocritical condescending attitude of the speech, where he claimed that only he, or only the US, knows what the problems of the Islamic World are, how to deal with them, and that he has the right and/or the authority to tell the Islamic World how to deal with these problems.

He asked them first to join him in confronting what he called violent extremists (Bush's global war on terror). He repeated the myth of the globally spread and strong al-Qaeda terrorists, who perpetrated the attacks of 911, and stressed that al-Qaeda's attack is a fact and not opinions to be debated. Obama wanted us to ignore all the scientific facts that contradict the official story of 911 attacks, and indicate that 911 was an inside job.

Obama denies American plans of building military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq along the oil pipe lines and to revive the opium industry in Afghanistan to regain the money laundering through Wall Street. Although Obama knows very well that Iraqi invasion was a "war of choice" that has devastated the country and led to strong anti-American sentiments he claimed that "Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein". The fact is Iraqis, even those who hated Saddam Hussein, are longing for at least the peace and safety they enjoyed under his rule compared to the Americans.

Although Obama can understand that the trauma of 911 had led his country "... to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals", such as wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, and human rights violations such as kidnapping, renditions and torture, yet he could not understand that all these traumas had led Muslims in general to resist such violent acts. So he claimed that "America will defend itself, respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law" through invading other countries and dropping bombs on civilians. The Americans "will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened". It seems any threat to America is also a threat to Muslim communities since Obama claimed that these violent extremists had killed Muslims of different faith more than Americans, ignoring the fact that American military had adopted the policies of divide in order to conquer, and igniting hatred between different ethnic and religious groups.

Obama's real goal of the speech and his hypocritical condescending attitude is clearly expressed when he stated: "The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we (Americans) will all be safer". The hidden message here is that terrorists exist only in Muslim communities, and Obama wants the Muslim governments, as proxies, to eliminate those terrorists, who resist American colonialism. To motivate Muslim governments to destroy the terrorists among them Obama abused the Qur'anic teachings "whoever (terrorists) kills an innocent it is as if he has killed all mankind, and whoever (government) saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind".

The real violent extremists terrorist are the neocons, who worked in the Bush administration, who waged wars and terror around the world such as in Haiti, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East. They have caused the devastations of several countries, and killed several millions of souls with each soul as killing all mankind. Yet Obama had refused to persecute these terrorists in the American communities.

As for the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Obama started with a warning to the Arabs by reasserting the unconditional immoral support for terrorist Israel. He talked about America's unbreakable bond to Israel "... based upon cultural and historical ties" as if the Jews, a small minority in America, are the only people having cultural and historical ties to America. Are there really any such bonds besides arming Israel? He acknowledged the Jewish suffering in Europe, and their "aspiration (Zionist colonial plan) for a Jewish homeland" that came on the expense of Palestinians. He stated that "threatening Israel with destruction is deeply wrong" ignoring the fact that Arabs and Muslims had never threatened Israel but extended many peace treaties to Israeli leaders, who rejected them. The opposite is true. Israel is threatening Arabs and Muslims. Suffering from a holocaust should have motivated them not to inflict similar holocaust on others.

On the other hand Obama recognized the "undeniable" Palestinian sufferings, pain and dislocations. Yet he did not confess that Israel, backed with American military support, is the cause of this suffering. It is a well known fact that Obama's administration is still providing Israel with weapons, $3 BILLION worth this year, to kill Palestinians and usurp more land, even after the Gaza holocaust. He justified this with "but if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth". Obama should look at the conflict from the side of justice. The Israelis had violently occupied Palestine, rejected the two states and the one state solutions and all other peace initiatives because their real "aspiration" is for Greater Israel from Nile to Euphrates. Ignoring this is another political naivetÃ©.

Obama supported the two states solution, and promised to "...personally pursue this outcome with all the patience and dedication that the task requires". Promises ... promises. But "Palestinians must abandon violence (terror)" seems to be the price of such dedication. Obama, here, ignored and legitimized the 61 years long Israeli terror against Palestinians, and denied the Palestinians the legal and moral right to resist occupation that is legitimized by the UN charter. He turned the table around describing Israelis as the victims of Palestinian aggression stating that it is not a sign of courage or power "to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus". He forgot to mention Israeli American made fighters dropping American made bombs on Palestinian civilian homes killing more children and women also while sleeping.

Obama's call to Palestinians to stop their resistance and to learn non-violent struggle methods from the American blacks, from people from South Africa to South Asia and from Eastern Europe to Indonesia, is hypocrisy and flatly wrong. All these people had won their freedom and their rights only when their oppressors realized that they cannot defeat the people's armed resistance. Obama needs only to study the black history in America to realize this fact. Yet Palestinians had always used peaceful methods more than violence. They had adopted peace initiatives, peace negotiations, demonstrations, Intifadas, lobbying and conferences, economic boycotts, divestment, and many other peaceful methods. It is only when the Israelis had met these peaceful methods with more brutal aggression that some Palestinians resorted to internationally approved armed resistance.

Obama denied the legitimacy of the democratically elected Hamas, who "..have support among some Palestinians" and demanded they " ... must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist". He ignored the fact that Israel is the violent party, had sabotaged and annulled past unjust towards Palestinians agreements, and does not recognize Palestinians' right to exist on their own land. He then declared that Israel had violated past agreements "This construction (of Israeli settlements) violates previous agreements ... it is time for these settlements to stop". These settlements are illegal under international law and must be dismantled not just stopped.

Obama summed up the Palestinian cause as a ".. continuing humanitarian crisis" and asked Israel to take concrete steps to enable Palestinian progress. Yet he demanded Arab governments to do more than the Peace Initiative which he considered only a beginning. He told them that since "privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away", you should act accordingly and help Palestinians "to recognize Israel's legitimacy, and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past"

Lastly tickling the Islamic religious feeling with the story of Isra when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed joined in prayer in Jerusalem, Obama called to turn originally Arab Jerusalem into an international city.

Along the last 61 years Israel has been the American mad dog in the heart of the Arab World. Successive American administrations promise Arab regimes to keep this Israeli dog on leash preventing it from expanding its territory providing the Arab regimes do the American biddings. Obama's administration is not different.

Talking about nuclear armaments Obama requested Iran to abide by the NPT, to overcome decades of mistrust caused by the US/Iran conflicts, and to prepare to move forward with the US to discuss the many issues between the two countries. Obama wanted to make it clear that "when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point ... it's about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path". Although he hinted that some countries (Israel) have nuclear weapons he did not mention Israel's nuclear weapons emboldening Israel's terror and threatening the region. He ignored America's own nuclear weapons, America's so-called defense shield in Europe, and all the nuclear bomb carriers; battleships, submarines, and fighter planes surrounding Iran from all sides.

Obama tried to alienate himself from Bush's doctrine of spreading American democracy and stated that no government should impose its system on other nations. He declared his commitment, though, to governments that reflect the will of the people. Yet his administrated had ignored and opposed the Palestinian choice of Hamas. He ignored American meddling in the elections of other countries such as Venezuela, Georgia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon recently, and even the coming elections of Iran.

As for religious freedom Obama accused Muslims if intolerance: "Among some Muslims, there's a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of somebody else's faith". He cited the divisions between Sunni and Shia that led to tragic violence in Iraq as evidence of such intolerance. Yet he ignored the fact that Western countries, particularly the US, are greatly anti-Muslims. America had invented the terms extremist/fundamentalist Muslims, terrorist Muslims, Islamofascist, and Islamophobia. Muslims have been largely persecuted in America since 911. Obama ignored the fact that Islamic division in Iraq was the result of American policy of divide in order to conquer. Obama would not even dare to talk about Jewish religious intolerance and the rejection of others as represented by their concept of god's chosen people.

Obama paid lip service to women's rights giving women the right to choose her dress and to pursue education and careers equal to men.

Finally Obama talked about economic development; a dear subject to his heart. He invited the oil rich Gulf States to re-invest their money back into the US because "no development strategy can be based only upon what comes out of the ground, nor it can be sustained while young people are out of work". Many Gulf States withdrew their money from American banks after 911. Obama also wanted the Gulf States to increase its production of oil and to decrease the price. Hence, came his sudden unplanned quick visit to Saudi Arabia. In return Obama promised to "create a new corps of business volunteers to partner with counterparts in Muslim-majority countries".

Obama ended his speech with patronizing quotes from the three religions and calling to work together for peace.

Obama sang and danced very well. Now comes time for deeds.