Today\’s quote comes to us from long time commentator and devout liberal Democrat, Cokie Roberts. It was made Sunday, on ABC\’s “This Week”, during a discussion of how the Israel-hamas situation got to its current “hot war” status.
Here is what Ms. Roberts had to say:
“It\’s a, you know, a real absence though of American leadership in the region because I think that you\’ve got these rockets going into Gaza from Syria and Iran and, you know, we just haven\’t made a strong enough presence in that region to have people be afraid of this country. And so I think that there\’s a sense that, you know, they can get away with anything they want to get away with.”
Now there\’s a criticism you don\’t expect: a liberal Democrat commentator, generally very supportive of Barack Obama, making the case that he has rendered the United States so weak in the Middle East that countries like Syria and Iran do not think twice about helping terrorism along, because they know the USA is going to do little or nothing about it.
Does Ms. Roberts have a point? Well, if those missiles were not being supplied to hamas by Syria and Iran there would have been no offensive, thus no retaliation by Israel. And if the Obama white house had shown any spine, guts or character, maybe fewer or none of them would have found their way into Gaza.
I award Cokie Roberts Quote Of The Day honors because that\’s a damn good analysis, even if, given her usual political status, it must have hurt to say it.
Honesty is easy when it doesn\’t hurt; much harder when it does. I applaud Ms. Roberts\’ courage to show honesty in this instance, and hope against hope that it is contagious.
