Obama: 911 Attack Caused by “Lack of Empathy”

Posted on July 14, 2008

The cover of the New Yorker isn’t the only controversy, the article itself is very revealing. It mentions how unstable the young Senator was, as he threatened to physically kick another Senator’s a$$! It also has this little snippet of interesting information from an Obama speech on 9/19/01 speech:

We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.
We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad. We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe—children not just in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and within our own shores.

Drew at Ace’s:

I guess my thought that the attacks were carried by evil thugs in furtherance of a murderous ideology would be viewed as insufficiently nuanced by Obama.

It seems, at least from this excerpt, that from the start Obama viewed 9/11 as a call to engage in global social work. I have to admit, 8 days after September 11th those weren’t exactly my concerns and not really the priorities I’d want in any President faced with that situation.

Ed Morrissey:

Obama talks about our “rage” and warns against what he sees as our likelihood to start killing people indiscriminately, rather than the terrorists and their already-proven indiscriminate killing. He sees our primary mission in the days when the fires still raged at Ground Zero as some sort of touchy-feely crusade to “rais[e] the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe”.
That wasn’t our primary mission then, nor is it now. The primary mission of the American federal government is American national security and the protection of its citizens. Provide for the common defense outranks raising hopes and prospects of “embittered children” regardless of their location. A President should know the difference, and almost every American did know the difference on 9/19/01 — except Barack Obama.

Indeed. It is amazing that Americans are even considering electing this idiot as our President. How much media coverage do you think this will get? Obama should hope that no one actually reads this article in the New Yorker, because the controversial cover cartoon is hardly the worst.

Also see: Maggie’s Notebook

» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Elections, Islam, Islamicfascism, News, Socialism, Stupidity, War On Terror, military, terrorism

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3 Responses to “Obama: 911 Attack Caused by “Lack of Empathy””

Ben on July 14th, 2008 11:20 am

Did Obama issue a fatwa against the New Yorker?
charles on July 14th, 2008 12:58 pm

Wow. You hear people say things like that. But I didn’t think mainstream democrats were that stupid. Islamic terrorism is ideologically motivated. That’s it’s cased by poverty or unemployment is just what someone will say who doesn’t know anything about it. Too bad McCain is so reluctant to attack Obama on these weaknesses. Thus will probably loose.
Raquel on July 14th, 2008 2:07 pm

Obama, a trained lawyer, should know the difference between “empathy” and “sympathy”. Empathy requires that the individual expressing it, has experienced the same thing. In other words, Obama’s saying that because the USA has been through what Al-Qaeda has been through, we understand their decision to kill us. This guy is pathetic!