Why is Obama telling the world that Americans are pathetic and fueling hate?

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

There hasn't been a declaration of war by this country since WW II.

We didn't give a huge and grand formal declaration of war on Iraq like Roosevelt did against Germany and Japan, but in this case Congress still approved our military to engage in armed conflict with Iraqi soldiers who were, according to Bush, the enemy. Additionally, he gave a lengthy televised speech to us about it.

War is war, no matter what you try to call it or how you go about initiating it. If you openly engage in armed combat with someone, then you are at war; pure and simple. Too many people run around nowadays trying to call things like Korea and Vietnam "police actions", when by definition, they were wars.

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

I know that, you know that, but we are the United States of America. As such we are held to a higher standard than anyone else.

That doesn't mean we should lie about the whole thing or try and sweep it under the rug like it never happened. Honesty is another standard which we supposedly hold as important; something that seemingly faded away in the aftermath of September 11th.

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

We do make mistakes but the global consequences for those mistakes are much higher.

Indeed, perhaps made most evident by the backlash against us from friendly nations after we initially went to war with Iraq in March 2003.

Originally Posted by ETR3(SS)

Realizing this we have to adhere to those higher standards if we wish to maintain our reputation.

Our "reputation" was not damaged by an act of apologetics by Obama; if anything, it helped. The world (and many fellow citizens) knew for years that what we had done in Iraq was wrong, and we weren't going to fool anybody by trying to ignore our past mistakes there, nor were we going to repair our social status.