President Obama addressed the Unites Nations General Assembly yesterday, and his speech consisted of several questionable declarations about the state of U.S. foreign policy and the state of the world as a whole. On radio this morning, Glenn unleashed a passionate rebuke the President’s words.
“No one wants to believe that the President of the United States, any president of the United States, is a habitual liar. Nobody does. But how many times do you have to see it for your own self and hear it with your own ears before that label becomes appropriate and absolutely unavoidable insanity to not attach that label,” Glenn asked. “It is way past appropriate to call the President a liar. He is a liar. What is truly incomprehensible, however, is that he can look into the eyes of the American people and look the world in the face and say the things that he said yesterday with a straight face.”
One of the issues the President attempted to address was the tactics and motives of the National Security Agency (NSA) both domestically and abroad.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We've begun to review the way that we gather intelligence so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share.
“That's unbelievable,” Glenn said. “Our privacy concerns as citizens, who are guaranteed to be protected under the Constitution, have been ignored. They have been lied about and they have been shredded.”
We know Americans are uneasy with the surveillance techniques of the federal government, but how do our allies feel? Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff used her speech, which opened the U.N. General Assembly, to accuse the U.S. of violating human rights and international law through espionage that included spying on her email.
PRESIDENT ROUSSEFF: The permanent mission of Brazil with the United Nations and even the very presidency of the republic of Brazil were subject to interception of communications. Tampering in such a manner in the life and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and as such, it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries, especially among friendly nations. What we have before us, Mr. President, is a serious violation of human rights and civil liberties, a case of invasion and capture of confidential secret information pertaining to business activities and, above all, a case of disrespect against the sovereignty of my country.
“Does this sound like she agrees – that her concerns have been properly balanced by the President of the United States,” Glenn asked. “Who are we turning into? She is, quite frankly, pissed and should be. She has every right to be. She was actually scheduled to come to Washington for an official state visit, but she cancelled it. Brazil cancelled an official state visit because of this spying program. Do you know anything about this? Have you heard this in the news?”
The President, according to Glenn, has “ruined or weakened” our ties with our closest allies, as much as he has worsened our relationship with our enemies.
“They are talking now about the United States of America violating basic human rights. This is not Iran saying this. This is Brazil,” Glenn said. “And then our President has the gall to stand up and say this yesterday:”
PRESIDENT OBAMA: As a result of this work, in cooperation with allies and partners, the world is more stable than it was five years ago.
“You've got to be kidding me: The world was more stable than it was five years ago. This is why, honestly, we don't concentrate on presidential speeches anymore because blood shoots out of my eyes,” Glenn proclaimed exasperatedly. “I can't believe the Hollywood world we live in, where everybody allows him to get away with this. The world is more stable than it was five years ago?”
Let’s quickly rundown just a few of the unstable events that have transpired in the last five years:
“You mean like before Egypt was on fire? Before Egypt rounded up 50,000 Muslim Brotherhood clerics and outlawed the group? Really? You mean we're more stable now? Before two changes in Egyptian leadership within a year, including a military coup that we don't even know if you'll call it a coup or not? You mean more stable than when the Christian churches were burned to the ground and Coptic Christians were being massacred? Because these are the changes in Egypt, by the way, Mr. President, that you encouraged,” Glenn explained.
“The world is more stable now that we don't have a dictator in Libya,” he asked. “Don't like the dictator, didn't like him, but now Al‑Qaeda is in charge of Libya, and the world is on fire there.”
The world was less stable before Libya burst into flames and four Americans were murdered in Benghazi. It was more stable, when the world thought that we would actually go rescue our own people,” Glenn continued. “You have the gall to say that the world's more stable after Kenyan terrorists began rising up and murdering innocent people at shopping malls? The world was really less stable before the Syrian Civil War, which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Chemical weapons were used. Because we destabilized the world, Mr. President! And the world is on the brink of World War III, and you have the gall to say it's more stable?”
There is no quantifiable way to argue that the world is more stable now than when President Obama took office, so why is he even trying to make that case?
“Mr. President, you are far too intelligent for this. You know better than this, but maybe you don't because everybody is afraid to say anything to you. So maybe you don't. Maybe you've never learned a lesson because nobody ever has the guts to say anything to you,” Glenn said. “Nobody will ever say, ‘Do you realize what you've just done? Do you realize what that speech just did? Do you realize what the ramifications are? Do you realize, Mr. President?’ No. Instead, everybody fawns over you and says you're the greatest leader to ever live! So maybe you don't. But I can't believe anymore that you're not just straight‑up lying.”
“Let me understand this. Is that really your idea of stable, Mr. President? Is that really what you think is stable,” he continued. “Because to quote the Princess Bride, "You keep using that word, and I do not think it means what you think it means."
Glenn ended his impassioned monologue with a plea to the American people:
“Let me ask you something: Where are you? Where are you? When will you have the basic human dignity and decency to stand up and denounce,” Glenn asked. “I don't care if you denounce this man or denounce your vote. I don't care. You denounce what's going on. You stand up and say, ‘No, not in my name.’ When? For the sake of our lives, our children, our God, our liberty? When will you finally wake up and say, ‘I can't be a part of this, not in my name. Not in my name.’”
