PRETTY PATHETIC, AT 7:44 A.M. ET:  When the president of the United States makes groveling a hallmark of foreign policy, can eager allies be far behind?  Now Britain, in the form of Foreign Minister David Miliband, goes into full grovel mode, weeks before Mr. Obama's much anticipated speech to the Muslim world:

David Miliband will reach out to Muslim states today, placing the Iraq war alongside the Crusades and colonialism in a list of “prejudices that British history generates”.

Having previously apologised for using the phrase War on Terror, the Foreign Secretary will acknowledge the damage that the Iraq war caused to Britain’s standing.

“The invasion of Iraq, and its aftermath, aroused a sense of bitterness, distrust and resentment,” he will say as he appeals for a “new coalition of consent” between the West and the Islamic world.

Although he will not apologise for voting for the war in 2003, he will say that it is “well to be clear” about how Britain is viewed as a consequence of its decision to back George Bush, adding that it reinforces a prejudiced view created by British history.

Thus has Obama wrought.  It goes on:

“Decisions taken many years ago in [the Foreign Office] are still felt on the landscape of the Middle East,” he will say. “Ruined Crusader castles remain as poignant monuments to the religious violence of the Middle Ages. Lines drawn on maps by colonial powers were succeeded, among other things, by the failure to establish two states in Palestine.”

COMMENT:  Thus has Obama wrought.  All the problems in the Muslim world were caused by the West.  There never was any bigotry or conquest that came from Islam.  We are at fault.

It is pathetic and sad.  There are certainly things the West did in the Muslim world that are, by today's standards, wrong.  But Islam has often been narrow, aggressive, and bigoted.  However, one does not get invited to the right Washington or London parties by pointing that out.

May 21, 2009