Obama's use of symbolism

Obama loves to use symbolism in his daily public life. I suppose it appeals to the idealogue in him, but it's almost creepy the way he acts like the world is a stage on which to interpret metaphors and symbols instead of being a leader of real people and solving real problems.

Take for instance today. It was announced that the 9/11 mastermind and other terrorists will be tried in a federal court civilian trial in New York City. This decision made by Obama shows a complete disregard for the massive loss of human life that happened right down the street from where the trial will take place. In fact, the courthouse was in the shadow of the World Trade Center towers, before the terrorists destroyed them and killed thousands of innocent Americans. He reduced the horrific acts of terror from being war crimes to simply "criminal acts." He's forcing the New Yorkers who are still reeling from this attack, to live alongside KSM while he defends himself against the atrocities he committed against them. The NYFD and NYPD will have to maintain security during the trial. Obama just forced them to them all to relive their personal hell each day the trial drags on.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but since it's a federal trial couldn't it be held anywhere like DC, Chicago, Seattle, anywhere? It didn't have to be in NYC. With this announcement, he's making a huge statement as to how he perceives the 9/11 attacks - no big deal to him at all. And that is symbolic. To him, who cares if it happened to the people of that city? He doesn't think they've suffered enough to warrant any backlash from the trial being held there.

I won't even get into the fact that it's going to be a civilian trial. It's detestable on so many levels and Andy McCarthy at The Corner speculates that the reason could be to use the information gathered during the trial to strengthen Obama's interrogation case against the CIA and top Bush administration officials. If that is one of the reasons, I will never forgive him.

This isn't the first time he's used symbolism to express his beliefs:

Uses of symbolism during the 2008 election campaign

--During the 2008 election campaign Obama stopped wearing his flag pin. The flag pin was the symbol of our unification after the 9/11 attacks and every politician had been wearing them daily. His break from the pin signaled that voting for him would be a change or an end to the way we had been handling terrorism policy-wise since the attacks took place. George W. Bush represented unity and strength against terror; Obama would represent something else, but certainly not a continuation of Bush's policies. His decision was also symbolic in the way he perceived the attacks: they are over and we should move on. Removing the pin symbolized that we should go back to the we were before the attacks took place and not live with them in mind daily.

--Obama played the Jay-Z song "99 problems but a b*tch ain't one" after he won the Iowa primary and Hillary Clinton lost. You don't have to think too hard about the meaning of that disgusting use of symbolism.

--He also "flipped the bird" to Hillary while speaking about her during the campaign, and did the same thing to McCain during another speech.

Symbolism with foreign policy and leaders

--The bottom of Obama's shoes were photographed while he was on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The article states that it is an insult in the Arab world to show the bottom of your shoes to someone. Even though Israel doesn't necessarily share the custom, many felt insulted by the photo, which is exactly why Obama did it. He was insulting them in a subtle, symbolic way.

--He announced that he would scrap the missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, giving in to a demand from Russia, on the 70th anniversary of Russia's invasion of Poland. Poland and the Czech Republic were occupied by the Soviet Union for 40 years and have since had a strenuous relationship with Russia. This announcement on the anniversary of the invasion was a clear symbol that Obama is interested in appeasing Russia and communist rule. He does not like individual freedom nor expressions of it.

This month, two more major uses of symbolism

--Obama made a "shout-out" and spoke in a jovial manner for approximately two minutes before discussing the Ft. Hood massacre for the first time. He had hours to prepare a speech, and everyone was breathless waiting to hear what he would say. At that time there were already 12 confirmed dead. He knew, without a doubt, that the entire nation was waiting to watch his speech. He gives a display of smiles, happiness and gives a "shout out" to Joe Medicine Crow who says won the Congressional Medal of Honor; however, he had not won the CMH. That is a military decoration awarded to someone in combat. Crow won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to civilians. Two symbols there. One is that he undermined the CMH as some worthless, toss-away award when in fact it's the highest military decoration anyone in the military could ever receive and it's the highest honor to receive it. Obama shows that he has no respect for the award or the military by mistakenly saying that a civilian won it. Obama himself was the one who awarded Crow the PMF on August 12, 2009 - a mere three months ago - and he "mistakenly" confuses it with the CMH? Please. This was a deliberate diss.

But the big symbol here was that Obama had zero empathy, zero respect and zero care for the acts of war on the United States on US soil. He had no feelings whatsoever that 12 military servicemen and women were murdered on their own base by a terrorist. He displayed his leadership and caring by goofing off for two minutes and giving shout outs instead of giving the dead the solemnity they deserve. But that's the symbol - he really was showing you what he really believes by doing that. You get to take away the meaning yourself.

--On Veterans Day last Wednesday he announced that he would wait several more weeks to decide on whether or not he will send more troops to Afghanistan, igorning his General's recommendation and leaving the troops already there flapping in the wind. It was also reported that if he does send more, it will be a far less amount than McChrystal's request. This was done on Veterans Day, the day we honor those who have served and are serving in the military. This symbol shows that he despises the military.


Whenever someone brings it to his attention that he offended someone by his symbolic gesture, Obama feigns ignorance - "Oh no, I didn't mean that!" or "What does that say about you that you would think of something like that?" So they get reduced to conspiracy theories and crazy ideas. But you can't deny that he does employ this technique to convey his true beliefs, add salt to the wound or to belittle something that someone holds dear.