Well, even if they won't keep their word (they didn't really "give their word" to anything themselves yet, right? - Except kicking Israel off the map, that is), this is important for the history books.
If his "Easy there, I want to talk with you" approach works - great. If it doesn't, it is good for the history books. Kinda like that "Islam is a religion of peace" notion Bush gave. It's a bit like stealing the whole drama and point away from the opposing side ("OF COURSE you can have nuclear power plants - OF COURSE you can believe this and that - my heart felt invitations / congrats!") and when they *fu(k it up*, you can kick them in the balls real good from the moral high ground.
Things to consider here though are
a) it might be too late for kicking (like what happened to Kennedy with his more relaxed view on the Soviets and all of the sudden woke up with a couple of nukes in the neighbourhood)
b) no kicking might happen by Obama.
In these cases that approach he is taking would be nothing else than pre-emptive surrender...and I hope this isn't the case. But who knows, maybe he couldn't care less if Israel is wiped off the map for example. Just like prolly around 50% Americans and 99% Europeans couldn't, and it would be totally compatible with the greater part of human history as well as the prophecies in the Holy Bible.
And when he continues and turns the US into a semi-Marxist, pro-"Palestinian" state, then maybe the Islamofascists, who have a problem with that whole "success through innovation / free societies / free markets" vs. "ignorance and beheading" approach, won't hate Amerika that much anymore and only threaten / use the nukes against the evil Jews. Hell, they blame the Jews for US foreign and economical policy already anyway. So he could easily cope out by saying "Hell, you're right - but that's not me. I'm CHANGE."
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