No Time for Troops on Obama's World Tour

It was an exciting week for everyone's favorite political rookie, Barack Obama. The presumptive Democratic nominee traveled throughout the Middle East and Europe, getting photographic proof that he can at least look presidential. He was accompanied by the evening news anchors from the three major networks, who hung on his every word like a cheerleader worshiping the captain of the football team.

Thousands of Europeans who can't vote in our elections tried to convince us how wonderful Obama is by turning out en masse to his speeches, which turned out to be rather boring policy statements than inspiring speeches that would have played better to crowds who didn't even speak his language, yet cheered everything he said.

That isn't to say there weren't missteps along the way. There was that awkward moment in Israel when he tried to convince everyone that he supports an undivided Jerusalem under Israeli supervision, after backtracking on that exact statement, which he made several weeks before in an attempt to keep the Palestinian Authority happy. Of course, there was that little incident when someone put Obama political posters on the Wailing Wall. The Obama campaign claimed they were not responsible, which of course means it must have been someone who actually came to pray at the Wall.

Note to the Obama campaign: the next time you visit Israel, and pay tribute to victims of the Holocaust, don't then jump on a plane to make speeches in Germany. It reeks of insincerity and political opportunism to do so in a country that leads the world in anti-Semitism, even today.

All of this pales, of course, to Obama failing to visit the wounded soldiers at Ramstein Air Force base in Germany. It is the first stop for soldiers wounded in the War on Terror before they go home. Obama claims he had to cancel his appearance after speaking with the Pentagon, but the truth soon surfaced that Obama wanted to film his visits with wounded soldiers. The Pentagon considered that a use of soldiers for political purposes, and since Obama couldn't get some positive press out of it, he tossed the idea.

Perhaps some Democrats see it as a good thing. After all, these are the same soldiers John Kerry accused of being ignorant and raiding Iraqi homes in the middle of the night and terrorizing women and children, and whom Harry Reid said weren't good enough to win the war they were fighting in. Obama had stated that the surge the troops were undertaking would fail, an assertion he continued until recently, when his statements on his website to that effect were removed days before he left on the trip. Never mind that just about everyone else on earth has admitted the tide of the war has turned in our favor.

Obama's speeches on his trip asserted that his election will usher in a fairy-tale existence on earth, wherein tyrants and terrorists will lay down arms and abandon their quest for power. It fails to address the looming conflicts that await the defenders of freedom. Iran has been emboldened, urged on by the idea that America is in decline, a message they were fed directly from Obama and his fellow Democrats. Their words have sparked real-world problems, and words will no longer solve them. For Obama, visiting wounded soldiers is facing the harsh reality that our young men and women will likely be called upon to fight for the very liberties we now enjoy. It is a reality he cannot face or support, for it wins him no new votes. Taking a principled stand is just too inconvenient, and so his own self-delusion continues.