JoeChalupa
05-08-2009, 03:30 PM
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22272.html
President Barack Obama has chosen Egypt as the location to deliver his long-awaited speech to the Muslim world.
He’s scheduled to make the speech on June 4, fulfilling a campaign pledge to make such an address early in his administration.
“This is a continuing effort of the president’s to engage the Muslim world,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, adding that the president has “high hopes for a stronger relationship.”
He said that Obama would expand on previous remarks to Muslim audiences, including a speech in Turkey where he declared that the United States is not at war with Islam, despite the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Egypt is one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East, but it’s also an authoritarian state under President Hosni Mubarak. But Gibbs played down the venue, noting that the speech wasn’t being delivered to leaders but to Muslims generally.
“This is a speech to many, many people, and [is part of] the continuing effort by this president and this White House to demonstrate how we can work together to ensure safety and security ... of the children of this country and of the Muslim world,” Gibbs said.
Obama also will visit Germany and France on the June trip. In Dresden, Germany, he'll visit the Buchenwald concentration camp. And in France on June 6, he’s scheduled to help commemorate the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
--So how will the right spin this? I'm sure Rush, Sean and Pags will call it a sign of weakness or appeasement. I disagree.
President Barack Obama has chosen Egypt as the location to deliver his long-awaited speech to the Muslim world.
He’s scheduled to make the speech on June 4, fulfilling a campaign pledge to make such an address early in his administration.
“This is a continuing effort of the president’s to engage the Muslim world,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, adding that the president has “high hopes for a stronger relationship.”
He said that Obama would expand on previous remarks to Muslim audiences, including a speech in Turkey where he declared that the United States is not at war with Islam, despite the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Egypt is one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East, but it’s also an authoritarian state under President Hosni Mubarak. But Gibbs played down the venue, noting that the speech wasn’t being delivered to leaders but to Muslims generally.
“This is a speech to many, many people, and [is part of] the continuing effort by this president and this White House to demonstrate how we can work together to ensure safety and security ... of the children of this country and of the Muslim world,” Gibbs said.
Obama also will visit Germany and France on the June trip. In Dresden, Germany, he'll visit the Buchenwald concentration camp. And in France on June 6, he’s scheduled to help commemorate the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
--So how will the right spin this? I'm sure Rush, Sean and Pags will call it a sign of weakness or appeasement. I disagree.