The chaos today across the Middle East is eerily reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter years in the White House. In 1979, supposed Iranian students attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran and captured 52 hostages and held them for 444 days. This all transpired after President Jimmy Carter facilitated the overthrow of Iran's Shah by Islamic radicals just as Obama facilitated the scenario for the killing of Libya’s Gaddafi and the overthrow of Egypt’s Mubarak. The Shah, Gaddafi and Mubarak were certainly unsavory characters who oppressed their people, but the new regime in Iran hasn’t proven much better, if not worse, and Libya and Egypt are not shaping up so far to be much better, with Libya appearing to be largely in the hands of Al Qaeda.
Carter didn’t succeed in winning favor with the radicals in Iran in 1979 and neither has Obama succeeded in Egypt and Libya, even after Obama’s famous Cairo Speech in June 2009. Carter and Obama both used a foreign policy of appeasement and apology to no avail. The radicals, in both cases, despise the U.S. and have no regard for the U.S. in helping them rise to power. The scenario in 1979 began in February with the American ambassador in neighboring Afghanistan being killed by Muslim extremists. On September 4, 1979, the American embassy in Tehran was invaded and our diplomats were taken hostage as a mob shouted "Death to America." It resulted in eight American servicemen being killed in a failed attempt to rescue the hostages. Fearing retaliation by the new American President, the Iranians released the hostages on January 20, 1981, the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.
Today, the mobs in Cairo and Libya are shouting the same chant as was heard in Iran in 1979. Attackers in Libya shouted “Death to America” as they gathered after the murders of our ambassador and three other diplomats just days ago.
Our government responded first to the attack on the Cairo U.S. Embassy with what amounted to an apology and condemnation of the maker of an anti-Muslim YouTube video rather than condemning the attackers. “The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims… Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.” Excuse me, but we don’t apologize for our Constitution.
The apology fanned the flames in Libya resulting in the assassination of our four diplomats. After outrage was expressed in America over the apologies, the White House tried to walk it back, but they since have doubled down on blaming the video.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has said the murders and attacks were “not a response to the United States or policy,” but to the film. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the film was to blame several times. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said, the attacks were an “outrageous response to an offensive video” and “this is not an expression of hostility in the broadest sense toward the United States or U.S. policy. It’s approximately a reaction to this video.” What? Apparently they think if they say it enough, we will start to believe it. They have called these spontaneous attacks, but their comments don’t hold water since the rebels had rocket-propelled grenades and other combat weapons. Libyan President Mohammed Magarief has publicly stated that the attacks were “preplanned.”
A bigger question is why our embassies weren’t better protected on Sept. 11, and it’s being reported that a letter appeared in the Jerusalem Post stating that attacks were expected on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
After four years of “pre-emptive concessions,” as Ronald Reagan said, our embassies are being attacked and our people killed. But as the famous quotation goes, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And this White House is set upon that path.
In 2007, during the campaign, Obama said, he was “uniquely qualified to bring stability to America's relationships in the Muslim world” because he lived in an Islamic country during his youth and his half-sister is Muslim. Well, Obama, how well has that worked out for you? Just about as well as your Cairo speech.
Obama has proven to be a foreign policy novice and narcissist. He thought he only needed to press a reset button and speak nicely and they would love him and love us. If we learned nothing else from 1979, it was that the Middle East respects and fears power. Weakness emboldens our enemies.
It’s obvious Obama doesn’t have a clue about Muslim radicals and that they hate us and want to kill us. We are up against years of indoctrination against the U.S., as well as the internal tribal, cultural, economic and religious differences in these Middle Eastern countries. And he still doesn’t get it after the massive killings on Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 11, 2012 or with the repeated chants of “Death to America” and signs spray painted across the Middle East, “Go to Hell U.S.”
Obama and Joe Biden fanned the flames of Middle East hostilities with their campaign victory laps for killing Bin Laden and Biden’s idiotic statement, “GM’s alive and Bin Laden is dead.” And the Muslim radicals in Libya and Egypt verified this by chanting, “Obama, Obama, we are all Osama.”
There is a clear lack of leadership and no clarity about our Middle East policy. Even Obama stumbled around last week during an interview not knowing whether to call Egypt our ally or enemy. The State Department covered for him by quickly coming out with statements that Egypt is our ally.
But what is our Middle East policy? No one knows. And our allies no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us.
Our greatest Middle East ally, Israel, has been continuously snubbed and insulted by Obama and he is refusing to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. His priority is to go on the David Letterman Show instead. While the Middle East burns, Obama will be yukking it up on Letterman.
Obama not only has an economic crisis on his hands, but a Middle East crisis, just as Carter did on the eve of his reelection campaign. Carter paved the way for radical Muslims to take over Iran and Obama is paving the way for a nuclear Iran and whatever awaits us with the current Middle East uprisings.
In September 1980, Carter led Reagan by four points in the polls. American voters wised up and realized that Carter’s economic and foreign policies were weakening the country. Reagan handily beat Carter. Let’s ensure that Obama has a similar fate and loses big time in November.
