I could not agree more with John. The first thing I thought of when I heard about the  Barack Obama anti-colonialist hubbub was the president’s Cairo speech. That celebrated exercise in “outreach” included this forgotten gem:

The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.

It is an arguable point that all Americans–considering the circumstances and meaning of this country’s founding–are default anti-colonialists. The story of America is the story of its continuing trajectory, from a collection of rights-deprived colonies to a liberal independent nation that defends liberty for all. For that very reason those who apologize for America as a colonial power can be said to lack some fundamental understanding of their country. This misunderstanding has long been evidenced in Obama’s own words and actions. To muddy up the discussion with birther paranoia is to begin to forfeit an important argument about the perils of the current administration’s world view.