Saturday, April 11, 2009

Hostages? I Want Pizza!

While Americans are being held captive at sea President Obama decided to hold a pizza party at the White House,
And Dear Leader doesn't eat just any pizza. He's gotta have his pizza from St. Louis.
So much for the hostages. They can wait. So, Obama flew in his own personal pizza guy from the Gateway City just so he could have his pizza.
Meanwhile, America continues to signal to the world that we are all too happy to capitulate.

Here's more from Abe Greenwald at Commentary:

Four Americans are now being held captive by foreign governments or non-state actors: two journalists in North Korea, one journalist in Iran, and one ship captain off the coast of Somalia.

Has anyone heard from the president about these incidents?
In regard to North Korea and Iran, Barack Obama is too dug-in to a capitulationist stance to make a peep. While free and safe journalists praise Obama for “listening” to autocrats and fanatics, their less fortunate colleagues have been listening in vain for a word from the American president. Tragic as that is, it does at least free up Obama to speak forcefully about the Somali pirates now holding the brave and selfless Capt. Richard Phillips. After all, we can’t possibly have an interest in engaging these stateless thugs. So what message has Obama sent?

“So far President Barack Obama’s role in the U.S. response to an American sea captain’s kidnapping by Somali pirates has been careful - and quiet,” writes the Associated Press’ Liz Sidoti. “The new commander in chief has been kept abreast of negotiations over the captain’s release, but advisers say Obama has delegated the heavy lifting to high-level administration officials and his military commanders. The president himself has yet to speak publicly about the incident near the Horn of Africa. He brushed off a reporter’s question Thursday. Instead he has let his top surrogates do the talking, although their comments have been brief, perhaps mindful that their words could influence the sensitive negotiations with the hostage-taking pirates.”

It is far too easy to criticize the president for failing to do or say the right thing in regard to these fragile situations. Missteps could prove fatal. But to do and say nothing about Americans being held captive in foreign lands is a scandal in itself and another global advertisement for America’s new and pervasive sense of trepidation.

4 comments:

Geoff Gove said...

Are you suggesting he fast or would you prefer that take his staff to a fancy restaurant? How about a tea party instead?

Dan Cirucci said...

Thanks, Geoff for commenting.
I think it would be great if the President attended a tea party - one of those parties that will take place on Tax Day, April 15; this Wednesday.
It would be wonderful if he could attend and just listen.
It's been reported that Obama commented that his Administration is the only thing standing between Washington and chaos; and that by "chaos" he meant those people "coming over the hills with pitchforks."
But the tea party people aren't hayseeds. We aren't carrying pitchforks. We're real, live, hard-working, tax-paying Americans.
We're the kind of people he said he would help.
If Bush fiddled away eating barbecue that he had flown in from Austin while unemployment soared, businesses closed and US hostages were taken by pirates at sea, he would have been excoriated for it.
In truth, I'm being rather easy on Obama.

Geoff Gove said...

As I recall, Bush read a children's book while the WTC burned. How is the Fox/AFA sponsored Tea Party going to help our ailing economy or balance the budget?

Dan Cirucci said...

It always helps when, in a free country people freely organize, legally express their views and take positive, responsible action for a just cause.
Freedom and liberty are what America is all about.
Free and open debate - not senseless adulation - is the road to a better America.
I remind you: Bush wasn't sitting at home eating pizza on 9/11. He was acting in a positive way as President of the United States, leading his literacy and education initiatives just months into his presidency.
In any event, as soon as it was clear that America was under attack Bush moved into action. We have now been under attack for several days on the high seas and Obama won't even talk about it. His Administration apparently sees it as a "distraction."
And this, too: America was never attacked by terrorists again during the Bush presidency. Let's see how Obama lives up to THAT record.