I like this guy.
I don't think he much cares for Obama either...
Last Updated: November 01. 2009 1:00AM
Thomas Sowell
Obama's critics are right to question policies despite supporters' outcry
Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an
experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or
not it should be made permanent.
I rose at the faculty meeting
to say that I knew practically nothing about whether the program was
good or bad, and that the information that had been supplied to us was
too vague for us to have any basis for voting, one way or the other. My
suggestion was that we get more concrete information before having a
vote.
The director of that program rose immediately and
responded indignantly and sarcastically to what I had just said –– and
the faculty gave him a standing ovation.
After the faculty
meeting was over, I told a colleague that I was stunned and baffled by
the faculty's fierce response to my simply saying that we needed more
information before voting.
"Tom, you don't understand," he said.
"Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much
hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts."
Years
later, and hundreds of miles away, I learned that my worst misgivings
about that program did not begin to approach the reality, which
included organized criminal activity.
The memory of that
long-ago episode has come back more than once while observing both the
actions of the Obama administration and the fierce reactions of its
supporters to any questioning or criticism.
Almost never do
these reactions include factual or logical arguments against the
administration's critics. Instead, there is indignation, accusations of
bad faith and even charges of racism.
Here too, it seems as if
so many people have invested so much hope and trust in Barack Obama
that it is intolerable that anyone should come along and stir up any
doubts that could threaten their house of cards.
Among the most
pathetic letters and e-mails I receive are those from people who ask
why I don't write more "positively" about Obama or "give him the
benefit of the doubt."
No one –– not even the president of the
United States –– has an entitlement to a "positive" response to his
actions. The entitlement mentality has eroded the once common belief
that you earned things, including respect, instead of being given them.
As for the benefit of the doubt, no one –– especially not the
president of the United States –– is entitled to that, when his actions
can jeopardize the rights of 300 million Americans domestically and the
security of the nation in an international jungle, where nuclear
weapons may soon be in the hands of people with suicidal fanaticism.
Will it take a mushroom cloud over an American city to make that clear?
Was 9/11 not enough?
When a president of the United States has
begun the process of dismantling America from within, and exposing us
to dangerous enemies outside, the time is long past for being concerned
about his public image. He has his own press agents for that.
Internationally,
Barack Obama has made every mistake that was made by the Western
democracies in the 1930s, mistakes that put Hitler in a position to
start World War II –– and come dangerously close to winning it.
At
the heart of those mistakes was trying to mollify your enemies by
throwing your friends to the wolves. The Obama administration has
already done that by reneging on this country's commitment to put a
missile defense shield in Eastern Europe and by its lackadaisical
foot-dragging on doing anything serious to stop Iran from getting
nuclear weapons. That means, for all practical purposes, throwing
Israel to the wolves as well.
Countries around the world that
have to look out for their own national survival, above all, are not
going to ignore how much Obama has downgraded the reliability of
America's commitments.
Iraq, for example, knows that Iran is
going to be next door forever while Americans may be gone in a few
years. South Korea likewise knows that North Korea is permanently next
door but who knows when the Obama administration will get a bright idea
to pull out? Countries in South America know that Hugo Chavez is
allying Venezuela with Iran. Dare they ally themselves with an
unreliable USA? Or should they join our enemies to work against us?
This issue is too serious for squeamish silence.
Thomas
Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA 94305. His column is distributed by Creators
Syndicate, 5777 W. Century, Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. His
column is published Sunday online at detnews.com.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091101/OPINION03/911010307/1008/Obama-s-critics-are-right-to-question-policies-despite-supporters––outcry