After making an apparent comparison between the unrest in the Middle East and Ferguson, Missouri at the United Nations, President Barack Obama acknowledged on Saturday that America’s enemies have been more than happy to exploit Ferguson to stick it to the United States and deflect attention from their human rights abuses.
Speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus’s Phoenix Awards Dinner on Saturday evening, Obama said it was interesting that “Ferguson was used by some of America’s enemies and critics to deflect attention from their shortcomings overseas; to undermine our efforts to promote justice around the world. They said, well, look at what’s happened to you back home.”
Obama may not have helped matters when he brought up Ferguson while speaking about violence in Ukraine and the Middle East during an address to the United Nations General Assembly last week. On Saturday, Obama claimed that at the United Nations, he was using Ferguson to point out that “America is special not because we’re perfect; America is special because we work to address our problems, to make our union more perfect.”
“We fight for more justice. We fight to cure what ails us. We fight for our ideals, and we’re willing to criticize ourselves when we fall short,” he said on Saturday. “And we address our differences in the open space of democracy–with respect for the rule of law; with a place for people of every race and religion; and with an unyielding belief that people who love their country can change it. That’s what makes us special–not because we don’t have problems, but because we work to fix them. And we will continue to work to fix this.”
Last week at the United Nations, Obama said he realizes that “America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals; that America has plenty of problems within our own borders. This is true.”
“In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided,” Obama said at the United Nations. “So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.”
Obama continued by saying at the United Nations, “But we welcome the scrutiny of the world – because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect. America is not the same as it was 100 years ago, 50 years ago, or even a decade ago.”
“Because we fight for our ideals, and are willing to criticize ourselves when we fall short. Because we hold our leaders accountable, and insist on a free press and independent judiciary,” he continued. “Because we address our differences in the open space of democracy–with respect for the rule of law; with a place for people of every race and religion; and with an unyielding belief in the ability of individual men and women to change their communities and countries for the better.”
Obama was criticized for the apparent comparison. For instance, former Vice President Dick Cheney said he was “outraged” and “stunned.”
“I mean, in one case, you’ve got a police officer involved in a shooting. There may be questions about it. They’ll be sorted out through the legal process,” Cheney said last week on Fox News. “There’s no comparison to that with what ISIS is doing to thousands of people throughout the Middle East, with bloody beheadings of anybody they come in contact with.”
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