Friday, March 20, 2015
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer
One Nation Under Allah?
The latest example of the multicultural virus infecting our schools just erupted at Pine Bush High School in Pine Bush, New York. The school, to its credit, begins the day with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance over the school intercom.
Recently, school administrators decided they could show their really cool progressive commitment to diversity by directing that the Pledge be recited in Arabic — including “one nation under Allah” instead of “under God.”
The local community, including veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many students were not amused. The school has since apologized. Apparently they thought “under God” and “under Allah” were synonymous. They are not.
The fact is there are many nations in the world that are “under Allah,” and they generally are not pleasant places for women, minorities, Christians and Jews — or many Muslims for that matter.
There is only one country in the world built on the idea that liberty comes from God, the God of the Bible. That nation is the United States of America. And that central idea of our founding is a reason why we have been a force for good around the world and a haven for the world’s persecuted.
Sadly, given the growing jihadist wave around the world and the likelihood of a nuclear-armed Iran, young men and women like those at Pine Bush High School may be called upon in the years ahead to go off to battle those who truly intend to make one world under Allah.
Obama Encourages Iran’s Youth
President Obama is once again reaching out to Millennials — Iran’s Millennial generation. In a video message wishing Iranians a happy new year, the New York Times reports that Obama is encouraging Iran’s youth “to pressure their leaders to accept the [nuclear] deal on the table.”
I couldn’t help but recall a little history here. The last time the youth of Iran in a meaningful way pressured their government was in 2009. Hundreds of thousands of young Iranians took to the streets protesting corruption and a rigged election and demanding an end to the Islamic regime.
If they had been successful, there probably would be a lot less worry today about that same regime building a nuclear arsenal. But far from encouraging Iran’s youth then, Obama abandoned the demonstrators, and today the Islamic Republic is wreaking havoc across the Middle East.
Obama’s Contempt
Sadly, even in this new year’s greeting, Obama could not resist criticizing Americans who disagree with his bad nuclear deal. He said: “There are people, in both our countries and beyond, who oppose a diplomatic resolution.”
Obama is referring to Senator Tom Cotton and the 46 senators who signed his letter. He is referring to the millions of Americans who don’t trust that he will get a deal that stops Iran’s nuclear program. (We have seen this movie before — the last Democratic administration gave us a nuclear North Korea.)
The mullahs of Iran don’t want a deal if it in any way limits their ability to develop nuclear weapons with which they could annihilate Israel and threaten the United States.
Conservatives and a significant number of pro-Israel Democrats are trying to protect the country from a weak deal they believe will enable the mullahs to develop nuclear weapons.
Yet Obama claims these diametrically opposite points of view are somehow equivalent. Moreover, his statement is simply not true.
There is no one I know of who opposes a tough, verifiable deal. But few outside the cloistered confines of the Obama White House believe this deal is tough or verifiable. History gives us little reason to trust the tyrants in Tehran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
He then goes on to say, “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.”
He can’t possibly believe that. If he does believe it, why have we wasted the last two years on these negotiations?
If the ayatollah’s intentions are purely innocent, then why are the Iranians being so uncooperative — burying their centrifuges underground and in mountains, refusing to grant international inspectors access to Iranian scientists and nuclear sites? In fact, there is no such fatwa and if there were it wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on.
Cotton Wins
The left and the media went ballistic when Senator Tom Cotton and 46 senators dared to remind the Iranians that the elected representatives of the American people also had a say on binding treaties negotiated by our presidents. For all the handwringing and furrowed brows over Senator Cotton’s letter, he is the clear winner in that public battle with the Obama White House.
It got almost no news coverage, but 363 members of the House of Representatives — that’s 83% of the chamber — sent their own letter to Obama yesterday saying essentially the exact same thing as Senator Cotton’s letter. Here’s an excerpt:
“Should an agreement with Iran be reached, permanent sanctions relief from congressionally-mandated sanctions would require new legislation. In reviewing such an agreement, Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb, and only then will Congress be able to consider permanent sanctions relief.”
Wo(men)’s Issues
Earlier this month, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken made a revealing comment at a gala celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of EMILY’s List, the nation’s most influential pro-abortion political action committee. “First of all,” he quipped as he began his introduction of the group’s president, Stephanie Schriock, “I apologize for being a guy.”
The former Saturday Night Live actor’s jest probably earned him a few laughs. But, as I argue in an op-ed in The Federalist, it also hinted at the absurdity of what has become an increasingly common refrain among abortion advocates — that reproductive issues are (or ought to be) the domain of women alone. Read more here.
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