Based on Obama’s Afghan War address last year, with West Point cadets as props, the only infamy I could detect was for the men and women who kept us safe after 911, especially including his predecessors in office named President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

But I’m not surprised. After all, Obama is not a Democrat of the FDR variety. No, he is a post 1963 variety. He is no JFK that would bear any burden for Liberty. Rather, he is of the “Blame America First” crowd.

I’m sure if he had finished the Dreams of his Father and Hate America Church Rev. Wright’s Audacity of Hope books before December 7, 1941, he would have asked the question former President Bill Clinton asked soon after the 911 attacks, i.e. “Why do they hate us”?

In his supposed surge speech last December, consider this attack on actions by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan that led to the first defeat of the Russian army in history and our eventual victory in the Cold War:

Al Qaeda’s base of operations was in Afghanistan, where they were harbored by the Taliban — a ruthless, repressive and radical movement that seized control of that country after it was ravaged by years of Soviet occupation and civil war, and after the attention of America and our friends had turned elsewhere.

Ah yes, its the old bait and switch of liberals. America either causes all the bad in the world by our actions, or we are at fault for the rest of the bad in the world by “allowing” bad things to happen due to inaction. In any event, Blame America First.

Secondly, you will search in vain in Obama’s first address as Commander-in-Chief for any reference to our enemies as “enemies” or “terrorists”. For example:

On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people…

As we know, these men belonged to al Qaeda — a group of extremists…

I set a goal that was narrowly defined as disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al Qaeda and its extremist allies

Our President speaks of “men” that belong to a club (al Qaeda) that is “extreme.” Sounds like he speaks of the Shriners, a bad alcohol weekend, or Kiwanis when the pancakes got cold. They just like a little innocent blood with their food and drink. I guess the kamikazes just like to fly their planes a little too close, being the mere extremists, that they are.

Most of Obama’s oration accompanying a surge of 30K troops (Gen. McChrystal had asked for 80K) was reserved for diatribes against President Bush and his own country, praises for himself and condescensions against the military as he explains the cost of war and that we have an economic crisis at home. Who knew?

FDR had a little crisis of his own on the Day of Infamy we commemorate today, but he didn’t speak of exit strategies or tiptoe around the fact that we faced evil enemies. He spoke of total victory and the unconditional surrender of the Kamikazes.

And neither did President Bush equivocate about his Day of Infamy. Which is why we hadn’t been struck since 911 until Obama’s Fort Hood “extremist”, mentally ill, Muslim effected the worst, dare I say, terrorist attack on American soil since 2001.

I just hope that we don’t have to add a further days of infamy due to Obama’s weakness, with the main day of infamy being his Inauguration.

Obama is no FDR. He isn’t even a Jimmy Carter. In fact, it is to former President Carter’s credit that Obama includes him in his diatribe against this country.

God bless those that lost their lives on December 7, 1941 and those that avenged that infamous sneak attack.

God bless America!

Original version published December 7, 2009

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson