Blue Star Chronicles

While at the G20 Summit in London, Obama had the opportunity to meet and talk the ears off the heads of state of the 20 top economies in the world. When he met the King of Saudi Arabia, he bowed to him. A photo and the video of that bow are below.

Obama Bows to Saudi King

Bowing to royalty is symbolic of that monarch’s power over his or her subjects. That’s why Americans don’t bow to the British Queen while the subjects of the Crown do. Our forefathers fought a pretty nasty war called the American Revolution, so that we would not be subjected to the will of the British monarchy.

I know things have changed a lot since then and some Americans choose to give a quick curtsy to Queen Elizabeth as a courtesy. Not a huge big deal. Inappropriate and indicates a lack of understanding of the dynamics between to two countries, but not a sign of treason any more.

In fact, when Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, met the Queen this week, they did a quick little perfectly executed bow. That was probably an effort on their part to make up for their series of insults to the British in the short time Obama has been President of the United States. Regardless of their reasons, it was still not proper for an American President to bow to the Queen.

One does not bow or curtsy to a foreign monarch because the gesture symbolizes recognition of her power over her subjects.

Even the English found it to be inappropriate and wondered about the heyday the press would have had if President George W. Bush had been so out of touch with proper protocol. We know he’d have been laughed at endlessly in the media and had those images broadcast out to the public 24/7 with ‘journalist’ asserting it was proof that he was just an ignorant American (as though being American is an insult).

It turns out that Obama has yet to appoint a chief of protocol. Seriously.

When someone has spent two years campaigning for the presidency, don’t you think they might have been a tad bit better prepared then this?

Much worse than the curtsy to the Queen of England was the deep subservient bow to the Saudi King. When Obama met Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, he sank into a bow that made some watching wonder if he was fixing to lick the king’s shoes. At its best it is unbecoming of an American President to bow to a foreign king, or its just clueless.

Does bowing, deep bowing, to the King of Saudi Arabia leave much doubt as to where Obama’s loyalties lie? His has made numerous attempts to court the Arab world since he’s been president.

The Saudi king himself has stated that ‘the faithful’ bow only to God. That makes me wonder how King Abdullah himself viewed the subservience of the American President.

New Saudi King Abdullah has effectively banned citizens from kissing his hand or that of any member of the royal family, saying only fathers and mothers deserved such reverence.

“Brothers, there is something on my mind I want to tell you,” King Abdullah told delegations of princes, officials and ordinary citizens at his palace in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

“Kissing hands is something alien to our values and ethics, and is refused by free and honest souls,” he said, quoted by the official SPA news agency.

“Moreover, it leads to bowing, which violates God’s law as the faithful bows only to the one and only God.

The whole thing is embarrassing. Its like the ‘American Hillbillies go to Europe’. Yet the slobbering American press will just gush over them as though they are the most sophisticated people ever to reside in the White House.

I can’t really laugh at Obama’s antics in Europe. He is throwing American power and prestige out with both hands as fast as he can. I can’t laugh at it, because he’s taking all of us with him.