[PJ Media] BLUF: Hoekstra criticized President Obama for believing the "power of his personality" would bring peace to the Middle East.
"This president, as he did in Egypt, as he's done in Iran, as he's done in Syria, has decided that in America's best interest he believes he can manage, work with, but most importantly he believed that because of the power of his personality the radical jihadist movement would fundamentally change their view of America and change their behavior," he said.
Hoekstra cited a quote from Obama in November 2007 during his first run for president.
"I truly believe that the day I'm inaugurated, not only the country looks at itself differently, but the world looks at America differently," Obama said at the time. "If I'm reaching out to the Muslim world they understand that I've lived in a Muslim country and I may be a Christian, but I also understand their point of view."
According to Hoekstra, that statement demonstrates Obama thought every country in the Middle East would change their worldview and "national self-interest" after he entered the White House, which he argued has not happened.
Overall, Hoekstra said, the U.S. is worse off strategically than it was on Sept. 11, 2001.
"The threat to us and to our allies, to Western Europe, today is greater than what it was then," he said. |