THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 153, June 12, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
NO SHORT-TERM MIDDLE EAST SOLUTIONS
By Alan Caruba
THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY & U.S. FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD ARABS & THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST: THE
SPECTACULAR INEPTITUDE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IN DEALING WITH THE ISLAMIC THREAT TO THE U.S.A. &
THE WEST -- THE IRRECONCILABLE CONFLICT BETWEEN PRESIDENT OBAMA'S PERCEPTIONS & THE REALITY OF CURRENT &
PAST EVENTS OCCURRING IN &/OR ASSOCIATED WITH ISLAM & THE MIDDLE EAST -- THE HISTORY OF ISLAM AS A HISTORY
OF MILITARY AGGRESSION, CONQUEST, TYRANNY, & BRUTALITY -- ISLAM AS A SAVAGE POLITICAL RELIGION BENT ON
GLOBAL DOMINATION -- OBAMA CLUELESS, AS REGARDS THE TRUE NATURE & DANGEROUS AGENDA OF ISLAMISM &
THE WORLD-WIDE ISLAMIST MOVEMENT
FULL STORY:
A problem with which American administrations have grappled since the days of Thomas Jefferson’s Presidency has
been Arabs and the Middle East. The Marine anthem mentions “the shores of Tripoli” because, in 1801, Jefferson sent
the U.S. Marines there to put down the Barbary pirates.
One of the best books on this subject is Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the
Present by Michael B. Oren, who, with exquisite irony, is currently serving as the Israeli Ambassador to the United
States, the nation of his birth.
Regarding the Middle East, if you have had the feeling that the Obama administration has been spectacularly inept as it
takes its turn at bat, you’re right. Barely six months into his first year, on June 4, 2009, the newly-minted President gave
a speech in Cairo.
“I’ve come to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on
mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not
be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles — principles of justice and progress, tolerance
and the dignity of all human beings.”
Obama’s impressions, aspirations, or re-write of history, past and present, clashes with the reality of current and past
events. He has, in fact, adopted virtually all of his much maligned predecessor’s policies in the Middle East and took a
bow for authorizing the long awaited assassination of Osama bin Laden.
As this is being written, the White House is debating the levels of military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. In
both cases, the public is alternatively told that the leaders of those two nations either want the U.S.A. to leave or to
stay. Where the truth falls no one seems to know.
It is very instructive to read what is being published in the newspapers that serve readers in the Middle East. Suffice to
say that the President and his policies are not well regarded in the Middle East. One can read daily translations of
articles from the Islamic press in north Africa and the Near East, as well as from the media in Asia and Europe, at an
interesting site: http://watchingamerica.com/News
I would argue that no amount of “hands on” involvement with the events unfolding from the Maghreb nations of
northern Africa to those that form the heart of the Middle East will significantly alter the outcome of events occurring
there.
In addition to the uprisings to throw off the shackles of despotism from Tunisia to Libya to Egypt to Syria, Bahrain to
Yemen, the common denominator for these and other Arab nations is their well-deserved sense of having been the
victims of various regimes. They are all likely to be united in their fear of the rise of Iran, a Persian nation, and one that
will soon achieve nuclear parity with Pakistan, India, and, yes, Israel.
The world has lived with “the bomb” since the end of World War Two in August, 1945. Nuclear weapons have not
been used since, but Iran is the wild card. It will not yield to international sanctions. Its cabal of Ayatollahs will not be
overthrown from within. It must either suffer a massive attack on its nuclear and military facilities or it will fill the skies
over Israel and other nations with mushroom clouds.
The leaders of Western nations seem unaware that, immediately upon the death of Muhammad in 632 A.D., Islam split
into two factions, Sunnis and Shiites, who have been in conflict with one another ever since.
The history of Islam consists of waging war on everyone else either for the purpose of conversion, looting, or the
collection of taxes laid on non-Muslims. This history has been broken by rare, short periods of tolerance, but Muslims,
convinced that their Koran is the absolute word of Allah, have been indifferent to the values of the West and
the advances of modernization that have usually been imposed on them through colonialism.
Islam has been around nearly 1,400 years and gives no evidence of reforming itself away from the Arab culture in which
it took seed and away from the brutal punishments that pass for justice. It was and is a savage “religion” bent on global
domination.
Even when Muslims find hospitality in non-Muslim nations, like those of Europe, they immediately set upon an effort to
impose Sharia law, usually through intimidation, on the indigenous population. In the Middle East, hands and heads are
still cut off, rape victims are stoned, and a charge of blasphemy or apostasy can get you killed.
As this is being written, Christians and the few Jews still residing in the Middle East and the Maghreb are fleeing for
their lives, as their churches are being burnt to the ground and their lives are at risk.
One would think that, after U.S. involvement in — invasions of— Afghanistan and Iraq, we would have figured out that
Islamic nations are impervious to any concept of Western-style constitutional representative democracy. Islam’s claims
to be a religion are framed within a political system run by theocrats.
Elections have managed to put Hamas in charge in Gaza and Hezbollah in charge of Lebanon. The Ayatollahs grabbed
power in Iran and turned that nation into a prison. The mobs in the streets of Syria are trying to overthrow the Assad
dynasty, warring against an Alawaite minority tribe ruling as Baathists. Yemen is a basketcase and Somalia is even worse.
The ignorance of these facts has cost Americans billions, if not trillions, with our adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. It
has led President Obama to intercede in Libya for no good reason. It is a desert under which oil exists. Beyond that, it
hardly matters which dictator is in charge. Quaddafi’s dabbling in terrorism cost him more than it was worth.
So long as Obama is President of the U.S.A., the U.S. government will pursue unrealistic and often stunningly stupid
policies and actions, as regards Islam and Muslim nations.
By way of one small example, in April, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, appointed Arif Alikhan, a
devout Muslim, as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development. Alikhan was born in Damascus, Syria. I am sure you feel
safer now knowing that.
Are there nice Muslims? Sure. Are there “moderate” Muslims? Possibly, but they are outnumbered by the millions who
are not. Oil money and various illegal enterprises support terrorism. Even Americans contribute, because the Obama
administration will not permit exploration or drilling for an estimated 150 billion barrels of our own domestic oil.
And you still wonder why President Obama actually bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia? Or that George W. Bush
ignored the fact that all but one of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists were Saudis? No President wants a repeat of the 1973
Saudi oil boycott.
Nothing good can come out of the current turmoil affecting most Arab Muslim nations. The U.S.A. would be wise to
maintain its military power, but the fact is our Navy is being reduced, our Air Force is flying aging aircraft, and the
combat divisions of our Army and Marines are worn out from repeated tours in the Middle East.
Obama is as clueless as Woodrow Wilson, who thought he could bring “peace in our time” and only managed to help
set in motion the run-up to World War Two. Obama has put America at risk in so many ways I am losing count.
------------------------------------------
© Alan Caruba, 2011
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, commentator and business and science writer,
he is the Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven "scare campaigns" designed
to influence public opinion and public policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity