Obama Inconsistent in United Nations Speech

President Obama still thinks he can make a speech and get away with previous mistakes. And, approaching an important mid term election, it is time for another one.

At the UN today, President Obama made a grand 39 minute speech so inconsistent with his previous actions and statements, it was hard not to laugh out loud at some points. In his speech he blatantly ignored his lack of a Foreign Policy, he attempted to establish his 6 year lack of American and international leadership, tried to put a positive spin on his failure to negotiate with Iran, insisted his weak response to Russia is strong, ignored his failure of a response to Syria, et al. The Wall Street Journal article below displays that eveer so gently. The Brietbart detailed review hits is very hard.

President Calls on Other Countries to Join U.S. in Effort to Combat Extremism.

President Barack Obama outlined a U.S. approach to the Middle East for his last two years in office that tightly focuses on diminishing Islamic extremism and leans heavily on American military power, as he implored regional leaders to do more to combat what he called the single most pressing threat to global progress.

In his sixth address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Obama made clear that fighting what he called “the cancer of violent extremism,” embodied in groups such as Islamic State, now dominates his foreign policy agenda.

“The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force,” Mr. Obama said. “So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death.”

The world is at a crossroads, Mr. Obama said.

The address was a stark contrast to Mr. Obama’s previous ones at the same forum. Last year he used the U.N. platform to articulate a sweeping vision for the Middle East that involved brokering a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, ending the civil war in Syria and reaching an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program.

This year, Mr. Obama addressed the General Assembly on the second day of U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State militants who have been fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which the U.S. also opposes.

He said a nuclear deal with Iran is still possible, although negotiators have already extended the talks once and are nearing a November deadline, and he went uncharacteristically off-script to take a swipe at Israel over the collapse of peace talks.

The failure of negotiations, Mr. Obama said, is “something worthy of reflection within Israel.”

Mr. Obama has no planned meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The U.S., Iran and other nations are holding nuclear talks on the sidelines of the General Assembly. In his speech, Mr. Obama called on Iran’s leaders to “not let this opportunity pass.”

“We can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful,” he said of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
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The U.S. and five Middle Eastern allies launched an expansive attack on extremist fighters in Syria on Monday night. WSJ’s Julian Barnes reports. Photo: Department of Defense

Mr. Obama had a sharp message for Russia, a key player in Iranian negotiations, over its intervention in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine have demonstrated “a vision of the world in which might makes right,” Mr. Obama said, whereas the U.S. believes “that right makes might—that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones.”

“Collectively, we must take concrete steps to address the danger posed by religiously motivated fanatics, and the trends that fuel their recruitment,” Mr. Obama said.

As he urged other leaders to address unrest in their countries, Mr. Obama highlighted the violence last summer in Ferguson, Mo., to say the U.S. still has work to do on this front as well. In the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown, Mr. Obama said it was clear to the world that “we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.”

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