PrintMarch 5, 2008
Obama senior advisor blames Bush for Iran's anti-Americanism
Senator Barack Obama's most senior military advisor, retired General Merrill McPeak, blames President George Bush for Iran's anti-Americanism. This is a shocking statement by any standard and provides people with even greater reasons to have qualms about Barack Obama's qualifications to be President.
Does McPeak remain unaware of any of these aspects of history:
1) The American Embassy hostage crisis during the Carter years; some have linked the current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to this hostage-taking.
2) Years of state sponsorship of terrorism by Iran-that preceded the election of George Bush; Bill Clinton signed the Iran Libya Sanctions Act in 1996 because of the anti-Americanism and terror sponsored by Iran and Libya
3) Iran's role in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 that killed 241 American servicemen during the Reagan years; the hostage taking and killing of Americans in Lebanon by Hezbollah-a terror group sponsored and supported by Iran. This included the kidnapping, torture and killing of Colonel William Buckley in 1985;
4) Iran's role in the Khobar barracks bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996 that killed 19 American servicemen during the Clinton years;
5) All the broadcasts over the years that have shown state-sponsored crowds of Iranians burning American flags as they chanted anti-American propaganda and slogans?
6) The sermons, radio broadcasts, and textbooks that teach anti-Americanism to Iranians?
If anything, as McPeak unwittingly discloses, Iran should consider George Bush an ally in some ways. He brought down two regimes in states that bordered Iran and which were enemies of Iran: the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein who launched a damaging and long-lasting war against Iran.
Senator Obama's senior military advisor seems to display a shocking ignorance of history -- a history that includes the deaths of many American servicemen. One would think a retired General would at least honor those of our servicemen killed by Iran.
This is one more senior adviser that calls into question Senator Obama's judgment and his ability to assume the duties and responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief.
Then again, Senator Obama blames the American occupation of Iraq for attacks against our servicemen in Iraq so maybe he chose an advisor whose views comport quite well with his own.
