Obama’s Cairo speech

President Barack Obama addressed the Dar-es-Islam in a speech at Cairo University. The Obama Cairo speech was one part tough love for Muslims, one part cringing apology, and one part Utopian vision wrapped up in historical ignorance.
Barack Obama started by doing something he eschewed during the campaign. "Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. " At one point he even reminded people of his full name, "Barack Hussein Obama", which was something people were punished for when Obama was running for President.
After expounding on the history of America and Islam, President Obama came down to issues.

On "violent extremism" Obama clung to the meme of "Afghanistan War good/Iraq War bad." Obama said, "Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible."

This does not make sense. Iraq was not a "war of choice." Saddam Hussein, for a variety of reasons (not just on WMDs, which everyone believed Hussein had and which he was certainly pursuing) had made himself intolerable. And Saddam was certainly not responding to diplomacy; that was the main reason the coalition forces marched.

Obama also made his first cringing apology. "The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals." Well, no we did not. That is a flat out lie and a pander not only to liberal opponents of the war on terror but to the Muslim extremists Obama says he abhors.