Obama’s “reach out to Muslims” alienates both US friends and foes

When Obama appointed former astronaut, Charles Bolden, as NASA admin last May, it barely registered a blip on the news meters. Bolden had also been a choice of Bush, but met with Pentagon resistance… the agency was determined to hang on to the then Marine General.

But NASA, the federal agency that rocketed the US to the top of space travel excellence with our lunar accomplishments, has turned out to be the unlikely messenger of Obama’s personal missives… and that is to ever find ways to “reach out” to the Muslim world. Byron York’s op-ed today has Bolden confessing that Obama tasked his NASA admin appointee with an unusual diplomatic task… as well as having that agency publicly admit the US is no longer “capable” of reaching beyond a low Earth orbit without the international community.

In a far-reaching restatement of goals for the nation’s space agency, NASA administrator Charles Bolden says President Obama has ordered him to pursue three new objectives: to “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.” Of those three goals, Bolden said in a recent interview with al-Jazeera, the mission to reach out to Muslims is “perhaps foremost,” because it will help Islamic nations “feel good” about their scientific accomplishments.

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Bolden’s trip included a June 15 speech at the American University in Cairo. In that speech, he said in the past NASA worked mostly with countries that are capable of space exploration. But that, too, has changed in light of Obama’s Cairo initiative. “He asked NASA to change…by reaching out to ‘non-traditional’ partners and strengthening our cooperation in the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia and in particular in Muslim-majority nations,” Bolden said. “NASA has embraced this charge.”

“NASA is not only a space exploration agency,” Bolden concluded, “but also an earth improvement agency.”

For now, let’s set aside that Obama now has dispatched our NASA administrator, trekking the globe, broadcasting the downfall … yet again… of American exceptionalism in our space endeavors. Instead, let’s examine Obama’s missive… that “reach out” to the Muslim world. For it’s impossible to deny that, in the year and a half of this POTUS reign, his attempts to “reach out” have accomplished nothing in getting the Muslim nations to be more inclusive, or benign, in the now renamed “war on terror”.

On the flip side, this administration can certainly proclaim success in alienating our traditional allies… from Britain to Columbia to Israel… with various events snubbing their respective leaders to his lukewarm support in their times of need. And then, of course, there was that most embarrassing incident when, following the Gaza flotilla, the WH was quick to let Netanyahu know that he would be less than welcome standing next to the US POTUS… and he should just skip the visit.

When the POTUS isn’t busy doing his own snubbing and arrogant gaffes to our allies, he sends his minions to do the same. Latest case in point, ol’ slow Joe Biden, in Iraq, lecturing our allies on Parliamentary stalemates. Quite the laugh when you consider the stalemate the US Congress enjoys at every turn… and even more embarrassing considering the chambers are comprised of an O’faithful supermajority. Oh the chutzpuh never ends.

But I digress. What, pray tell, has space technology advancements got to do with Muslim and Islam in general, I ask myself. Why should our federally funded agency specifically reach out to Muslims for our space endeavors? And why should that magically improve relations? Are we assuming that they have a leg up on this technology, strictly because of their religious choice? Well.. yeah… that is if you’re interested in advancing ways to pray in zero gravity, or eating space meals under Islamic rules.

But then, in a more honest vein, we have the more stellar example of Ahmad Mahmoud, the son of immigrant Eqyptian parents who attended public schools in New Jersey, went on to major in Aerospace Engineering at Rutgers University. Mahmoud was awarded first place for his design project, Multi-surface Adaptable Touch Sensor, from Rutgers. He went on to a NASA internship, and then offered a full time position with the Cryogenics department.

Because he’s Muslim? No… because he’s exceptional in his field.

Scientists of all faiths and nationalities bond together, across the span of political BS, because they share common goals. And, in fact, Islam Online has their own webpage devoted to Muslims and space. There has been no barrier to their contributions in the industry, and indeed their presence in space itself, since man’s first foray’s into that great frontier. The first Muslim to crew the Discovery shuttle was in 1985 – Prince Sultan bin Salman AbdulAziz Al-Saud from Saudi Arabia, who acted as payload specialist to deliver the ARABSAT 1-B communication satellite into orbit. He was not only the first Muslim in space, but was the first who was royalty.

Why? Because he’s Muslim? Again, no. Because he’s exceptional in his field.

Gee… now how did that happen without this POTUS, exercising squatting rights in the people’s House? sigh… But still, this POTUS persists in playing the class warfare/”social justice” card, as if this is a pressing problem in our world’s aeronautical society. Yet how has this pathetic ploy of bowing, scraping and proffered olive twigs played in the Muslim world? Not much better than it has with our allies, whom this POTUS is busy alienating at every turn.

He’s viewed as “weak” by Syria’s President Bashar Assad, during a visit with another of Obama’s favored leaders, Hugo Chavez.

The Obama administration’s failure to facilitate change in the Middle East shows that it is weak, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday during a visit to Latin America amid rising regional tensions over last month’s Gaza flotilla incident and increasing efforts to defuse the Iranian threat.

Assad was quoted Monday in the Argentine daily Clarín as saying that Washington did not “seem to be able to manage a peace process from beginning to end.” He added that while the US was capable of pulling “all its weight” to support a peace process, the current administration has so far proved to be impractical and unable to gain the backing of Congress.

“Afghanistan is worse than before,” said Assad, stressing that the situation in Iraq had not changed and ties with Syria remained stagnant despite US President Barack Obama’s announcement that he would dispatch a new ambassador to Damascus.

Another of those American foes that Obama has extended his olive trig to was Iran… while the past rebuffs have been well documented, and completely evident in their continued quest to possess nuke weaponry, now Ahmadinejad describes Obama as a dictator. American Thinker’s Rick Moran quotes The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) excepts of the Iranian President’s June 16th speech:

“Today, the harshest dictatorship is the one operating against the American nation, and the greatest pressure is exerted over there. They have no freedom of expression. No newspaper has the right to write anything about the crimes of the Zionists, or about the support given to them by the U.S. politicians. The American people do not have the right to demonstrate freely or to oppose the crimes of their politicians. Many Americans live in poverty. Eighty million people are poor. Some [leader] of that same America plundered hundreds and thousands of billions of dollars from the wealth of other nations.

“Mr. President, before thinking about other nations, think about your own. The action you took has forced us to declare that from now on, one of the main demands of the Iranian nation is to rescue the American people from its non-democratic bullying administration.”

So how’s that “reaching out” lip service bit working, Mr. Obama? So far it’s looking like Muslim dictators one, Zionists nothing from here. But I’m sure that “reach out” to Muslim space scientists will cure everything now…