Obama: 'The World Has Never Been Less Violent'

Obama: 'The World Has Never Been Less Violent'

 

BY DEBRA HEINE JULY 22, 2016

 

Whenever President Obama feels defensive, he likes to talk about how the world has become more safe under his watch (with the implication that it's due to his own wise leadership).

We first heard him speak that way during the summer of 2014, when the world seemed to be unraveling and critics were blaming him for the sad state of affairs.

Obama said, "The world is less violent than it has ever been. It is healthier than it has ever been. It is more tolerant than it has ever been. It is better fed then it’s ever been. It is more educated than it’s ever been."

He spoke the words on June 11, 2014, as ISIS was murdering its way across Iraq, Boko Haram was murdering and kidnapping its way across Nigeria, the Taliban's grip on Afghanistan was strengthening, Syria and Libya had become basket cases, terrorist attacks throughout the world were increasing, China was redrawing maritime borders, and Russia and the Ukraine were edging toward war.

National Journal's Ron Fournier at the time was appalled at Obama's insulting dishonesty.

"Frankly, that's insulting to the American public, Fournier said. "We knew before social media how scary the world is, and we know that in a lot of ways it's scarier now — and that's not just because of social media. Hey, Mr. President, there was media before there was social media."

Two years later -- to hear Obama tell it -- the world has become even more peaceful and tranquil. During the White House Summit on Global Development on July 20,the president said “we are living in the most peaceful” era in human history and that “the world has never been less violent.”

This, of course, was one day before Trump at the RNC blamed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for destabilizing the world and making America less safe. “It is worth reminding ourselves of how lucky we are to be living in the most peaceful, most prosperous, most progressive era in human history,” Obama boasted in the speech. “Because the world has never been less violent, healthier, better educated, more tolerant, with more opportunity for more people, and more connected than it is today,” he added.

 Obama and his team have always believed in the power of words over action -- especially Obama's words -- as if his much vaunted rhetorical gifts could somehow alter reality.

They can't.

Everyone can see that the United States has become less peaceful and prosperous under Obama.

A nation's prosperity is rated by its "accumulation of material wealth, the joy of everyday life and the prospect of an even better life in the future." Thanks to seven and a half years of President Hope and Change's ministrations, we are no longer ranked in the top 10 in the annual Prosperity Index.

Record numbers of people are not even in the labor force. (Of course, to Obama's way of thinking, "progress" means that people should rely more on the government to get by, and less on themselves.)

Although the media is loath to report this, major cities throughout the United states have also seen an alarming spike in violence this year. Some people -- like FBI Director James Comey -- attribute this rise in crime to the protests and anti-police sentiment that have followed the deaths of black men at the hands of police, aka the "Ferguson effect."

A city-by-city look shows:

• In Baltimore, shootings are up 82.5 percent, or nearly double from last year, the Baltimore Brew reported.
• In Chicago, there have been over 900 shootings this year, a 40 percent increase, and a 29 percent increase in homicides in the first three months of the year, USA Today reported.
• In New York City, murders have increased 20 percent and the mayor has already announced that he will put an additional 330 cops on the street by Monday in response to the spike in homicides and shootings.
• In Los Angeles, violent crime rates increased by more than 25 percent and the city is also deploying more officers to areas where crime is on the rise, The Los Angeles Times reported.

And according to Townhall.com:

• In St. Louis, there have been 55 murders this year
• In Dallas, violent crime is up 10 percent
• In Atlanta, homicides are up 32 percent
• In Milwaukee, homicides have increased by 180 percent

Race relations in America under Obama have hit an all-time low.

Sixty percent of respondents in a Rasmussen poll released Tuesday said race relations have deteriorated under Mr. Obama, the highest mark since he was elected eight years ago. That number is up 18 points since 2014, when 42 percent said the relationship between the races had worsened.

Just 9 percent said race relations have gotten better under the first black president, and 28 percent said they have stayed about the same.

Obama has been the most destructive president in American history on every single front imaginable.

As I wrote in May of 2014,  everything bad seems to “skyrocket” under this president.

Everything that hurts people, weakens the economy, and undermines the culture has sky-rocketed. Not good things. Only bad things. 

Unless you consider government dependency to be a good thing: Government programs are sky-rocketing: Tracfone (Obama-phone) usage, foodstamp usage, medicaid expansion, welfare expansion, and the number of people on disability — all have sky-rocketed. 

Insurance rates, unemployment, racial division, non enforcement of immigration laws, government workers, government corruption, “public sector millionaires”, homelessness, tuition costs, inflation, taxes, debt, and intolerance for people who dare to voice non-liberal views – all have sky-rocketed.

Terrorism across the globe has also skyrocketed during the Obama years and the carnage has been quantified. According to the annual “Global Terrorism Index” report, released late last year, terror attacks throughout the world have quadrupled under Obama.

Deaths from terrorism increased 80 percent last year to an all-time-record of 32,658 people killed, compared to 18,111 in 2013. The number is up about 426 percent from the 7,654 killed by terrorists in 2008 under President Bush, according to the latest report from ‘Vision of Humanity.’

The 2014 economic cost of 13,370 terrorist attacks in 93 countries included property damage, medical costs, lost income for victims, and the indirect costs of preventing and responding to terrorist acts. The annual “Global Terrorism Index” report estimated those costs hit an all-time-high in 2014 of $52.9 billion.

In just the past couple of weeks in the western world, we've seen 84 people killed and 202 injured in Nice, dozens injured by an axe-wielding Afghan refugee on a train in Germany, and a mother and her three young daughters stabbed by a Muslim man in Garda-Colombe, France.

This is not anybody's idea of "peace and prosperity," and no slick narrative -- not even one crafted by a talented aspiring novelist  -- can Gruber that awful truth away.