Are we really surprised by the Middle East uprising against America? This isn’t about the American produced video against the prophet Muhammad. This is about President Obama being a weak defender of America abroad, almost by design. Barely six months in office, Obama decided his first foreign trip, as president, would be to Egypt to apologize to the Muslim world for America behaving badly after 9/11.
Since when did America apologize for defending itself against madmen who kill in the name of God and give us advance notice of their impending carnage? In his Cairo speech delivered in June 2009, Obama said he was “honored” to be in a country from which many 9/11 terrorists came.
Then our president criticized American democracy and freedom and promised radical Muslims they could come to expect a less aggressive defender of “peace through strength.” Obama roared to cheers from Cairo: “9/11 was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. . . So America will defend itself, respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law.”
This speech combined with Obama’s subsequent lack of engagement during the Arab Spring, as dictators were toppled in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and Egypt, and his do nothing approach to Iran and Syria was an invitation to radical Islamists to commit the events of this past week. Islamic madmen have been given a license to kill our diplomats, deface our embassies and burn our flag because we have a president who has indicated from the start his disdain for America’s strength in the world, it’s superpower.
When Iran held rigged elections in 2009, Iranians stormed the streets in protests, what did Obama do? Nothing. When Iran indicated it would pursue a nuclear program, what did Obama do? Say, give diplomacy a chance.
When Israel repeatedly asked Obama to prove USA was its ally and give Iran a deadline to end its nuclear program, what did Obama do? Nothing. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said America won’t put deadlines on Iran, a terror state that indicates its mission is to destroy Israel. (It is worth noting in Obama’s three and half years in office he has yet to visit Israel, though he professes to have the Israeli’s back.)
When Syrian president Assad began “butchering” 20,000 Syrians almost two years ago, what did Obama do. Nothing.
In her Republican National Convention speech, Condoleeza Rice warned when America fails to lead, chaos ensues and “others who do not share our values will fill the vacuum. My fellow Americans, we do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead — and one cannot lead from behind.”
Obama's abdication of leadership in his foreign policy seems to be deliberately designed “to reduce American power in the world,” as Dinesh D’Souza writes in the Roots of Obama’s Rage. D’Souza traces Obama’s anti-colonist beliefs back to his father and demonstrates how Obama’s foreign policy goal is to level out the global playing field, so America has declining influence in the world. In a 2009 speech in Europe, Obama said “I believe in American exeptionalism just as I suspect the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks in Greek exceptionalism,” (p. 11, Roots of Obama’s Rage).
In his apologist speech in Cairo, Obama revealed his anti-colonial beliefs and seemed to sympathize with Muslim radicals. “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.” The subtext of what Obama appeared to be saying was he could understand how years of Muslim nations being oppressed by other nations like America would lead them to such heinous terrorist attacks.
Whether Obama is driven by his father’s anti-colonial worldview that America as been the oppressor of the oppressed and needs to be cut down to size or he’s just in over his head, it’s evident Obama’s isn’t getting the job done. As a result of his incompetence, Obama is making America and the world a less safer place. We can’t afford four more years of this. The question is how will Mitt Romney capitalize on this?
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