Most of the speech is - quite naturally - dedicated to his attempt to reconcile the Islamic Middle East with the West. There was lots of talk about Islam's great history and how awful America is. And though I'm not a religious pluralist (only Jesus saves), I agree that political systems should let people practice their religion peacefully, whatever it is. I hope it works. I hate the idea of my town blowing up or friends of mine dying in Afghanistan.
But I was very surprised by what he didn't say.
Of course, recognizing our common humanity is only the beginning of our task. Words alone cannot meet the needs of our people. These needs will be met only if we act boldly in the years ahead; and if we understand that the challenges we face are shared, and our failure to meet them will hurt us all.
In this vein he covers women's rights, education, religious and political freedom, and economic development. He mentions green technology and alternative energy in passing. But he never brings up the greatest crisis of all time. The challenge that, as the UN puts it, defines us as human beings. The thing that the former head of the UN says kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, and threatens to ultimately destroy the planet.
Where was climate change? I mean, global warming is the great unifier. It's both morally and scientifically undeniable. It is the crisis of epic proportions that must consume the entire world's efforts and resources in an immediate response.
This is unbelievable. Climate change is caused by mankind's addiction to fossil fuels, the vast majority of which have been pumped and shipped from the very region - no, by the very people, Obama was addressing. Yet human-induced climate change goes completely unmentioned. Our President had the perfect chance to enjoin the Muslim world in the fight to save the climate. But he didn't. First he reverses Bush's rejection of oil-rich thug Hugo Chavez, and now he's accepting gifts from the Saudis.
Given such a glaring omission, I can only conclude that the speech was a complete failure. What a shame.
I'm not a religious pluralist, either, so the comment I took even greater exception to was that America, with all the Muslim residents, was now one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.