"Student Of History" Blows It Again

It seems President Obama called himself a "student of history" during his speech in Cairo yesterday, then went on to declare that "the United States played a role in the [1953] overthrow of a democratically elected government in Iran." Wrong again. There was an overthrow, but it was far from a democratically elected government that U.S. and British forces destabilized. The historian, Judith Apter Klinghoffer, has the details in her post at History Network News. Please note her reference to the Wikipedia article that, I might add, includes 44 references, 14 sources for further reading, and 15 external links regarding what was called Operation Ajax.

Friends, though this coup is not a piece of history waiting to fall from our lips, it is by no means so obscure that it cannot be fact-checked by an apprentice among the president's speech writers. I will be interested in seeing if the White House press corps and the dinosaur media follow up on this error. Better still, will the White House issue a clarification? Somehow, I doubt we'll see much of a response. Instead, we'll see another error accepted as fact because it came from a respected source and a respected media had no response. To me, the question is, "At what point does the accumulation of historical error and distortion no longer matter to the executive or the electorate. Some would say we have already passed that point and moved comfortably into the arena of erasing historical fact to suit our personal ends. It most certainly will not be the first time in recorded history; however, that history also tells us a republic choosing to ignore truth does so at its peril. I suspect we'll need to be vigilant these next 1000 or so days.

Story Credit: Gateway Pundit
Photo: Tribunal of the Inquisition, by Francisco de Goya. I wonder if our unlucky wearers of the dunce caps capitulated to "the truth?"