VIDEO

President Barack Obama: A New Beginning

    President Barack Obama speaks about relations between Islam and the West at Cairo University in Egypt on Thursday, June 4.

    For full story, see this page.


Comments

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Talk is cheap.

Talk is cheap.

hmmm.... Obama's speech was

hmmm.... Obama's speech was shades of LBJ (compare and contrast LBJ's "come let us reason together"). As Clark commented above, talk is cheap. The Afghanistan war is seven and a half years old now and poised to become America's longest war ever. There's a weird alliteration/rhyme scheme to all this history "the spirit of Glassboro" and "Glasnost" meet Godzilla (on Fox of course!)

I had to watch it via the

I had to watch it via the White House site due to Internet throughput here in Asia. "Palestinians must abandon violence... for centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves.... But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. " Then what was the Black Panthers or Malcolm X all about? By the mid 60s MLK using non-violent protest had lost the young blacks, progress for them was too slow in coming. months before his assassination he himself was questioning the efficacy of his methods. Obama doesn't mention the 'right of return' for the large Palestinian diaspora. " Western countries [must] avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism." An obvious swipe at France. What would he say to Ataturk if he were alive? That outlawing the wearing hajib at university and in gov. offices is such a pretence? Two western educated leaders today in Turkey are trying to roll back the changes brought about by Ataturk by appealing to the EU on grounds that women in Turkey are being denied their rights to the practice of their religious beliefs.

Talk may be cheap, but the

Talk may be cheap, but the message was important, the fact of the speech itself showed courage (as well as a wonderful change - a president who is articulate and mature) and leadership. It's time to try to get back into the community of nations. But the wars we started in the middle east - over our gluttony for oil and oil profits - MUST stop. When we are no longer bombing and strafing and letting our mercenary "support groups" torture and wantonly murder without sanctions and punishment we will give the terror organizations no further reason to exist. Talk may be cheap - but could you imagine Cheney or Bush having the guts and the brains to walk into that auditorium and give a speech as intelligent as that one?

wow....i forgot how good he

wow....i forgot how good he really is

Talk is cheap, but our

Talk is cheap, but our officials, Democrat and Republican, are bought men. After all his talk, what has the "Obama Revolution" brought? We are still engaged in Bush's wars. The government continues to be an ATM for Big Business. Congress has a bill that will force people to sign up with corrupt, failing, murderous insurance companies at their own expense. That's not health care reform: it is a cash cow for the insurance companies. Those who worked to get Obama and Democrat Senators should be proud that their work was successful. President Obama and Dem Senators and Congressmen should be ashamed for selling all of us out.